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25.01.2022 Lost Bank Accounts Dear Here to Help, We are a small, not-for-profit community group with limited cashflow. We believe that, about twenty years ago, a not-for-profit with similar aims stopped operations with a few thousand dollars in its bank account.... We have been trying to access the money for some time, with no success. Can you help? I’m pleased to say that I was able to provide the community group with key industry contacts. The good news is that the community group now has a much healthier bank account balance, thanks to the old not-for-profit’s bank account. Did you know that Australians have over $1.1billion in lost shares, bank accounts and life insurance? If you watch the news, you would have heard about the nearly $18billion in lost superannuation. The Australian government and superannuation firms work together to try and reunite the money with its rightful owner. The same applies to bank accounts, share and life insurance. Once a bank account hasn’t been transacted on for seven years, it becomes inactive. Once the account is inactive, it is transferred to the Australian Government. Interest is paid on the money from 2013. Further information is available at https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/tools-an/find-unclaimed-money Elaine Abery has a closet full of great ideas and empowering solutions. She’s also the Director of Unravelling Red Tape, a company dedicated to helping everyday people, not-for-profits and companies change the world through improved decision-making and legislation. This article comes from my column entitled "Here to Help" in Hunter Local https://www.hunterlocal.com.au/, September 2019. If you have an everyday problem just begging for a simple, real world solution, send it to "Here to Help" and let's see what we can achieve. Photo by Michael Longmir on Unsplash #redtape #charities #lostbankaccounts #notforprofit #simplesolutions #realworldproblems

25.01.2022 It’s Not Us, It’s While there is nothing new about buck passing and blame shifting, this may just be me, but does it seem to have caught on like some kind of ‘pandemic’ recently! Since the banking royal commission, the tendency for organisations to claim that something is not within their power to change seems to have increased....Continue reading

25.01.2022 Don't forget to support your local businesses. Now more than ever https://www.facebook.com/localfirstAU/

24.01.2022 What a great initiative from COSBOA!

23.01.2022 A Tolling Ordeal Dear Here to Help, I recently drove interstate to visit a family member. I rang the tolling company to check I was still registered with them. I am hard of hearing and they speak very quickly in heavy accents and I couldn’t understand them. Finally, they hung up on me. I tried a couple of times, but it was always the same.... I don’t know what to do. I can’t afford a fine. Thank you for your query. Sometimes it can be difficult to communicate with call centre staff, particularly when their performance is measured by how quickly they complete a call. There are a few options available to you. First, google the road and toll, for example sydney harbour bridge toll and you will see a list of who can levy the toll. (1) If you download the app, or go online, within 2-3 days of using the toll road, you can usually pay without incurring any additional fees. (2) You will also be able to find a complaints email address on the toll operator’s website. You can send them a quick email saying you are trying to pay your toll, but the call centre staff keep hanging up on you and you shouldn’t have to pay any additional fees. (3) There is a Toll Ombudsman. Ombudsmen have a great success rate. You can find their details here https://tollingombudsman.com.au/. Just email them and tell them what happened. It doesn’t have to be a long email. They have direct contact with someone senior in the tolling company and usually issues are resolved quickly. (4) If you have a smartphone, you can download a toll app which automatically knows when you are on a toll road and charges you the correct amount. That way, you don’t have to worry about dealing with the call centre next time. This article comes from my column entitled "Here to Help" in Hunter Local, July 2020 https://www.hunterlocal.com.au/. If you have an everyday problem just begging for a simple, real world solution, send it to "Here to Help" and let's see what we can achieve. Elaine Abery has a closet full of great ideas and empowering solutions. She’s also the Director of Unravelling Red Tape, a company dedicated to helping everyday people, not-for-profits and companies change the world through improved decision-making and legislation. #redtape #bureaucracy #simplesolutions

22.01.2022 Here to Help Do you have an everyday problem just begging for a simple, real world solution? Post it here or send it to "Here to Help" and let's see what we can achieve.... Elaine Abery has a closet full of great ideas and empowering solutions. She’s also the Director of Unravelling Red Tape, a company dedicated to helping everyday people, not-for-profits and companies change the world through improved decision-making and legislation. #simplesolutions #redtape

19.01.2022 Tips for Dealing with Bureaucracies My passion to improve Australia one law or decision at a time lands me in all sorts of interesting conversations. Most often, people complain about their dealings with bureaucracies and ask what would you do? So, here are my top tips for dealing with bureaucracies.... 1. Be nice Whether you are dealing with a corporation that you pay or a government department, being nice will get you further than being rude. 2. Be honest We all have an inbuilt lie detector of some sort. Skirting around an inconvenient truth will often come back to bite you. If you forgot to pay a bill, just own it and be human. My business clients generally want to build ongoing relationships with government. In this case, it is even more important to be honest. It is not worth losing the war to win a battle based on incorrect information. You lose credibility and sacrifice relationships. 3. Be human A few months ago, my credit card was compromised and replaced. I managed to change all my bills over. Except one insurance monthly bill. Every month, I received a robo-email telling me to open and read the attachment, which told me my payment had bounced and my insurance would be cancelled. Every month, I rang and was hung up on, then passed around until someone (supposedly) took my new credit card details. I felt like I was lost in the system. Eventually, several months later, after being hung up on, I rang the company’s switch. By this time, I was in tears of frustration and I said I just want to pay my bill. I have been hung up and in a robo-loop for months. Please. Please. Put me through to someone who can help! She felt sorry for me. And it was done. 4. Be helpful Bureaucrats are just people like you and I. Sometimes, you can see something that they can’t. Sometimes, you have access to people or data that they don’t. Ask them how you can help them make the best decision for you and their bureaucracy. Next time, I’ll share tips 5 through to 8. This article comes from my column entitled "Here to Help" in Hunter Local, https://www.hunterlocal.com.au/, December 2019. If you have an everyday problem just begging for a simple, real world solution, send it to "Here to Help" and let's see what we can achieve. Elaine Abery has a closet full of great ideas and empowering solutions. She’s also the Director of Unravelling Red Tape, a company dedicated to helping everyday people, not-for-profits and companies change the world through improved decision-making and legislation. Photocredit - Chris Liverani on Unsplash #success #redtape #bureaucracy #simplesolutions #advocacy

19.01.2022 Last Sunday, Beach Business Breakfast interviewed me about government, public policy and how I help my clients. I start about 20 minutes in (-1:49:45 to be precise).

13.01.2022 Governments cannot outsource their legal responsibilities to contractors. This story confirms this principle once more. https://www.abc.net.au//local-councils-to-refund-/11997860

12.01.2022 COVID-xcuse Dear Here to Help My mother-in-law recently passed and we needed to cancel her phone account.... I rang the telecommunications company’s call centre. An automated message told me that they had reduced staff numbers due to COVID and I should go to a store. I duly went to the store, who told me that due to COVID, I needed to ring the call centre. Frustrated, we refused to leave until someone spoke to me. We were armed with a death certificate and other paperwork. They then told us the account was not in my mother-in-law’s name, but someone else’s and they couldn’t tell us who. My wife asked if the account was in her name and they said no. Finally, another week (I had to calm down) and another store, they confirmed the account WAS in my wife’s name and they could cancel it. I feel like some companies, particularly multinationals, are using COVID as an excuse. What are my options? Thank you for your letter and I am sorry to hear about your mother-in-law. I had a similar experience when I bought a new phone recently. They refused to help me in the phone company’s store, sending me to their call centre. They wasted two hours of my time, transferring me between staff, putting me on hold to check, and asking me the same questions repeatedly. To call the call centre unhelpful would be generous. I, too, returned to the store. It is not okay for this company to make it so difficult for you to cancel an account. Australian Consumer Law provides consumers with protections. You can always lodge a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, or the Office of Fair Trading. Another option if they are making it difficult to cancel an account is to send an email to the company stating that you cancel the account effective a particular date. Then, if they keep charging you, you can lodge a dispute with your credit card provider. COVID is not an excuse to charge for a service that is not provided. There are many businesses, small businesses in particular, bending over backwards to do good for their clients despite COVID difficulties. This article comes from my column entitled "Here to Help" in Hunter Local, August 2020 https://www.hunterlocal.com.au/. If you have an everyday problem just begging for a simple, real world solution, send it to "Here to Help" and let's see what we can achieve. Elaine Abery has a closet full of great ideas and empowering solutions. She’s also the Director of Unravelling Red Tape, a company dedicated to helping everyday people, not-for-profits and companies change the world through improved decision-making and legislation. Thanks to Luis Villasmil for sharing their work on Unsplash.

12.01.2022 Helping you reduce plastic waste BYO Containers the Supermarket Deli Debate Here to Help...Continue reading

11.01.2022 Successfully Dealing with Bureaucracies Last month, I shared my first four tips on how to get the best result when dealing with bureaucracies. Here's the remainder of my list. 5. Be proactive...Continue reading

11.01.2022 United We Stand - Covid19 Dear Here to Help, I run a small business and we have been struggling since Sunday 15 March. Where can we access help?...Continue reading

11.01.2022 Electricity billshock? Tips and tricks to help Dear Here to Help I am a single pensioner and I noticed that my electricity bills suddenly became much higher a couple of years ago. When I checked my meter, the numbers didn’t seem to tally with the numbers on my account.... It sounds to me like you want to challenge your electricity bill. The first thing to remember when challenging anything get your paperwork in order. Go back through your files and find as many electricity bills as you can. If you don’t have them, you can request your historical accounts from your electricity provider. (They may charge a fee.) You might also like to photograph your meter reading, with a date stamp, at regular intervals say weekly or monthly. Once, I even switched off everything in my apartment and checked the meter it was still running very fast! An electrician had mistakenly connected to my meter the power point my neighbour used for heating. After a bit of show and tell, this was resolved. Energy providers can make estimated meter readings in some cases, usually where they cannot access your meter. This may apply, for example, if you have a dog where your meter box is. You can find more information here https://www.ewon.com.au//suppli/billing-and-reading-meters Where the estimated meter reading is wrong, you are entitled to submit your own meter reading. Your energy retailer must clearly tell you of this right and give you clear instructions on how to take the meter reading and send it to them. Your first step is to complain to your energy provider through their formal complaint channel. If you are unhappy with the result, NSW has an Energy and Water Ombudsman ewon.com.au. If you are still unsatisfied, you can complain to the Australian Energy Market Commission. This article comes from my column entitled "Here to Help" in Hunter Local, https://www.hunterlocal.com.au/ September 2019, entitled "Electrickery". If you have an everyday problem just begging for a simple, real world solution, send it to "Here to Help" and let's see what we can achieve. Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash Elaine Abery has a closet full of great ideas and empowering solutions. She’s also the Director of Unravelling Red Tape, a company dedicated to helping everyday people, not-for-profits and companies change the world through improved decision-making and legislation. #electricity #billshock #simplesolutions #redtape

10.01.2022 Gifting "Dear Here to Help. I recently attended a funeral where they asked for donations in lieu of flowers. There was a box to put money in. I asked the funeral directors for a tax receipt and they told me that wasn’t possible. This seems wrong to me. Surely, they would raise more money for their charity if they gave receipts?" Thanks for your query. You are correct. It is possible to receive tax deduction receipts for this kind of donation.... I suspect the funeral directors just haven’t thought beyond their direct role. There are a few things you need to do. First, the charity needs to be a deductible gift recipient. You can check this on their website, or on the ATO’s website. Most large charities are deductible gift recipients. Second, fill out a piece of paper with your contact details, the amount of the donation, and write please send a tax receipt to me. Third, put your donation and the piece of paper with your contact details in a sealed envelope before you pop it in the donation box. Basically, this means that the charity can verify that you gave that amount and send you a tax receipt. Easy, right! While we are talking about gifting, in the current climate, it is useful to know that you can claim a tax deduction for gifts of up to $10 to bucket collections made by approved organisations for natural disasters. For more information on tax deductions for gifts, click here - https://www.ato.gov.au//Other-deducti/Gifts-and-donations/ Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash This article comes from my column entitled "Here to Help" in Hunter Local, https://www.hunterlocal.com.au/, February 2020. If you have an everyday problem just begging for a simple, real world solution, send it to "Here to Help" and let's see what we can achieve. Elaine Abery has a closet full of great ideas and empowering solutions. She’s also the Director of Unravelling Red Tape, a company dedicated to helping everyday people, not-for-profits and companies change the world through improved decision-making and legislation. #deductions #gifting #simplesolutions

08.01.2022 Recently, someone wrote into a Newcastle local paper about BYO container to supermarkets. The paper is https://www.hunterlocal.com.au/ The supermarket then responded. I wrote a response. #waronplastic #waronwaste #supermarkets

07.01.2022 Mask the Question Dear Here to Help Everyone should wear a face mask. Why doesn’t government just make it the law?... That is an interesting question. Let’s take a step back. The purpose of public policy (which includes laws) is to fix problems, or gaps, in our society. For example, without road rules, driving would become more dangerous, because the behaviour of other road-users would be less predictable. We wouldn’t know when to stop and when to go. And we wouldn’t know when others are likely to stop or go. For many things, we don’t need laws. To take an obvious example, laws don’t tell us what to eat or when to eat it. Sometimes, we need laws to drive behaviour, like in the road rules example. Sometimes, public demand drives behaviour changes. For example, as investors and consumers demanded greater social and environmental responsibility from companies, most major companies now include environmental and social governance criteria in their annual reports. And sometimes, behaviour drives public policy changes. Once upon a time, all reporting was required by law to be on paper. Today, most laws accept digital reporting. In some cases, the law requires digital reporting. Most of my interactions with the ATO are via their online tools. So back to your question on face masks. In Melbourne, face masks are compulsory. In other parts of Australia, they are not. Government policy-makers are carefully balancing the positives and negatives of their policy responses to COVID-19, based on the advice of health experts. In summary, the government is balancing medical advice based on individual needs of each locality. That means we are allowed to choose whether to wear masks, unless government deems the risk to be high and necessitates masks. Therefore, change will occur if people don’t act responsibly (public behaviour driving policy) or the COVID circumstances change negatively (public policy driving behaviour change). All in all, it is up to each one of us (outside Melbourne) to choose the best course of action for ourselves, based on current government advice. This article comes from my column entitled "Here to Help" in Hunter Local, September 2020 https://www.hunterlocal.com.au/. If you have an everyday problem just begging for a simple, real world solution, send it to "Here to Help" and let's see what we can achieve. Elaine Abery has a closet full of great ideas and empowering solutions. She’s also the Director of Unravelling Red Tape, a company dedicated to helping everyday people, not-for-profits and companies change the world through improved decision-making and legislation. #covid19 #regulation #government #legislation

06.01.2022 Designing Public Policy Dear Here to Help, I am finding governments’ covid-19 directions really hard to understand. Why can’t they just tell us what everyone can and can’t do?... Great question! First things first. When designing public policy, government decides how it wants to deal with a certain situation. In the current environment, government has been taking staged steps to shut down risky activities. The law that resulted from those policy decisions lists what is not allowed. This is a simpler solution than making lists of what is and isn’t allowed and in which circumstance. Simply put, there are so many activities, and so many variations of each activity, that it would be extremely difficult to list everything. And that would make for a lot of pages of law. Obviously, there are activities similar to those found in the prohibited activities list. So, people and professions have been asking government to clarify if their profession or activity can continue. In response, over time, governments have changed the laws around Australia to make exceptions to the list of what is not allowed. This results in rather complicated law, where you can’t do something on the list, unless you fall within a specific exemption. Again, there are activities and professions similar to those in the exemptions. As the list of exemptions grows, the law becomes more complex, and more uncertain. Another key factor in law-making is discretion. No law-maker can envisage every possible situation the law will apply to now and into the future. So, law works best when authorities have discretion to apply the law in a way that works best in particular circumstances. One example of this is beach closures. Surfing and fishing were generally allowed to continue, because they are a form of exercise (an exception to the rules). But swimming was not, even though it is also an exercise. Newcastle has spacious ocean baths, where it is possible to exercise and observe social distancing. And so, after a few days of closing the baths and beaches to swimmers, Newcastle City Council made the practical decision to allow swimming for exercise purposes. This aligns how ocean water-based sports are treated in Newcastle under the current rules. In summary, although the law may not be 100% clear about how your particular situation is treated, that is not necessarily a bad thing. This article comes from my column entitled "Here to Help" in Hunter Local, May 2020 https://www.hunterlocal.com.au/. If you have an everyday problem just begging for a simple, real world solution, send it to "Here to Help" and let's see what we can achieve. Elaine Abery has a closet full of great ideas and empowering solutions. She’s also the Director of Unravelling Red Tape, a company dedicated to helping everyday people, not-for-profits and companies change the world through improved decision-making and legislation. Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

06.01.2022 Have you ever wondered how to deal better with government departments? Or why/how governments make their decisions? Register here for a live Q and A.... https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/take-the-stress-out-of-deal

05.01.2022 Making Law in a Crisis At times, it may have felt a little like watching the fast and the furious as governments were responding with numerous law changes during the early days of the Coronavirus pandemic. However, it is important to understand that government was reacting to the crisis and rapidly announcing law changes to help deal with the situation as best they could. Let’s remember, we are all doing our best to navigate a difficult situation. These are known as public po...licy instruments and include JobKeeper, JobSeeker, and States of Emergency. Sometimes, the response for one business changed numerous times in the one day. It was hard to follow and, I suspect, even harder for government officials to lead. Legislation and public policy changes that normally take years took just days. It was an exciting time in the world of public policy and I wished I were still inside government, at the heart of driving our governments’ response to help the nation at this difficult time. Now that we have the luxury of better understanding the situation, we are seeing Australian governments release forward planning. That means a few things. First, governments are announcing their responses ahead of time. So, we know what restrictions are likely to lift on which dates. This gives everyone a bit more certainty and helps business and the community to better plan. Second, governments are less likely to change their planned approaches. They have decided which industries can return to work, when, and under what conditions. They are reluctant to change their plans, even when some professions are treated differently from other professions doing almost exactly the same thing. The reasoning is that they want to be able to measure the effectiveness of their changes. We can all be proud of the way that the Australian community has dealt, and is dealing, with this difficult situation. This article comes from my column entitled "Here to Help" in Hunter Local, June 2020 https://www.hunterlocal.com.au/. If you have an everyday problem just begging for a simple, real world solution, send it to "Here to Help" and let's see what we can achieve. Elaine Abery has a closet full of great ideas and empowering solutions. She’s also the Director of Unravelling Red Tape, a company dedicated to helping everyday people, not-for-profits and companies change the world through improved decision-making and legislation.

05.01.2022 The Round-About Way "Dear Here to Help A family member hired a car from a well-known company. There was a minor incident and the car hire company sent us a bill for the damage. The bill was very high. I showed photos of the damage and the bill to the authorised dealer for the car brand, who provided me with another, substantially cheaper, quote. I contacted my insurer, who was happy to cover the damage, but needed to talk to the car hire company directly. I rang and emailed t...he car hire company and asked them to deal with my insurer. Nearly eighteen months later, the car hire company is still refusing to speak to the insurer. They are ringing us day and night, threatening us if we don’t immediately pay their bill." Response Sometimes bureaucracies are stuck in the same gear, spinning their wheels on the same road. Trying to deal with the gear-spinners just does your head in. It can feel like you are banging your head against a brick wall. That’s when it’s time to do an internet search of the company. You are looking for a customer advocate, any other channel to interact with the company, or even the CEO and/or their executive assistant. In this case, we wrote a letter to the CEO who admitted the issue had been going on for far too long. He cancelled the bill. Perhaps he also looked at the way that section of the car hire company dealt with customers. This article comes from my column entitled "Here to Help" in Hunter Local, https://www.hunterlocal.com.au/, March 2020. If you have an everyday problem just begging for a simple, real world solution, send it to "Here to Help" and let's see what we can achieve. Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash Elaine Abery has a closet full of great ideas and empowering solutions. She’s also the Director of Unravelling Red Tape, a company dedicated to helping everyday people, not-for-profits and companies change the world through improved decision-making and legislation. #redtape #bureaucracy #simplesolutions

03.01.2022 Congratulations to Myotherapy Association Australia (MA) on being a finalist for Associations Forum 2020 awards. It was a privilege to be able to work with MA to advocate for the profession during Stage 3 and 4 Covid restrictions and achieve results including: * myotherapy allowed in all Australian States and Territories during Stage 3 Covid restrictions; and * remedial massage allowed in all Australian States and Territories during Stage 3 Covid restrictions.... Well done to Anna Yerondais and the team at Myotherapy Association Australia for this effort and I really hope you take home a well-earnt title of Winner for 2020!

01.01.2022 I was interviewed by Beach Business Breakfast to talk about how I help people through my work. I would love to hear your thoughts/feedback. https://www.beachbusinessbreakfast.com.au//s7-e2-elaine-o/