Department of Justice and Community Safety
The Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS) is a department within the Victorian public sector.
The Regulation Division of DJCS consists of:
- Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV)
- Justice Assurance and Review Office
- Inspector-General for Emergency Management - administration staff
- Post Sentence Authority
- Commissioner for Residential Tenancies
- Domestic Building Dispute Resolution Victoria.
DJCS promotes and embraces the values of:
- working together
- making it happen
- respecting other people
- serving the community
- acting with integrity.
At CAV, DJCS’ values are the basis for the way we do business and are demonstrated every day through the actions of our staff, whether they are working in regional areas or metropolitan offices.
Our commitment to these values is further evidenced through our approach to cultural diversity for an inclusive justice system that enables culturally and linguistically diverse communities to fulfil their potential as equal citizens.
These values shape and influence our ongoing training and development of staff, performance planning, recruitment and relationships with stakeholders.
Who we are and what we do
We define ourselves as a risk-based, intelligence-led and outcome-focussed consumer regulator.
We are led and overseen by the Director of Consumer Affairs (Director), which is a statutory office created under the Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading Act 2012 (ACLFTA). Under Sections 109 and 110 of this Act, the Director has significant powers and functions. These predominantly cover operational matters including education, compliance monitoring and enforcement. Nicole Rich is the current Director and is also the Executive Director, Regulatory Services.
Our vision is for a fair and competitive marketplace in Victoria. Our goals are to ensure:
- businesses comply with consumer laws
- a fair and safe rental market for Victoria
- Victorians exercise their consumer rights.
Our key functions are to:
- provide information and advice to consumers, tenants, businesses and landlords on their rights, responsibilities and changes to relevant laws
- register and license certain businesses and occupations
- enforce and ensure compliance with consumer laws
- review and advise the Victorian Government on the consumer protection framework.
Download our Strategic plan 2018-21 (PDF, 2.6 MB)
Jurisdiction
Our jurisdiction spans the general and industry-specific regulatory schemes that make up Victoria’s consumer protection system. It includes a range of industry specific legislation that affects consumers, not-for-profit organisations and tenants, and establishes occupational licensing and registration schemes.
At the basis of our general regulatory jurisdiction is the ACLFTA, which applies the Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cwth)) as a law of Victoria, known as the Australian Consumer Law (Victoria) or ACL. This is a national, uniform law that operates under a ‘one law, multiple regulators’ model by the Commonwealth, and all States and Territories. The ACL applies equally to all businesses Australia-wide. It:
- covers general standards of business conduct
- prohibits unfair trading practices and regulates specific types of business-to-consumer transactions
- provides basic consumer guarantees for goods and services
- regulates the safety of consumer products and product-related services.
For more information, view our Legislation we administer page.
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