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How to complain about TV captioning 
Under the
Broadcasting Services Act and various Codes of Practice, TV stations must generally respond in writing in a substantive manner to a written complaint, if its a non-frivolous (and probably non-vexatious) complaint. The sooner a complaint is raised about a program the better, because the material that's the subject of the complaint can be captured more readily the closer it was to the date of transmission. Generally, a complaint should be lodged within a month of the problem being sent to air. Part of the response should advise you that you can raise the issue with the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) if you're dissatisfied with the result.
For general information about the complaints process, visit the
You can find a contact list for all the Australian TV stations at the following link. Note that generally a letter must be sent by post for the complaint to be dealt with in a formal manner. Some TV stations may choose to deal with a complaint via e-mail or fax. Please check this. Generally, a complaint made by TTY is regarded to be the same as a voice telephone call - informal and no written response required.
The Codes of Practice are listed here:
If you have written to the TV station concerned and you are dissatisfied with their reply, and if the complaint concerns a matter covered by a Code of Practice or other issue under the Broadcasting Services Act, then you may complain to the ABA. They have an online complaints page at the following link. Please note that you will need to mail to them a copy of all the correspondence to and from the TV station concerned, once you have lodged this form.
The ABA can't handle all complaints. Some complaints fall outside of its scope of powers. On their Complaints General Information Page (mentioned earlier) there's a list of other Government and Industry bodies where you could direct your complaint as appropriate. If the complaint concerns disability discrimination then it could go to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC). See the following link for their process:
Information to include in a complaint 
Please be as concise as possible about the nature of your complaint - that is, state exactly what happened that made you want to complain? Also please provide enough information to identify exactly what program or other material you were watching, on what channel or network, at which time, in what city, town or location. The ABA's own Complaint Form provides a template that you could use to guide you in writing a complaint to a TV station.
What do good captions look like? 
That varies, according to who you talk to and who's viewing the program, but for interest's sake, there's a draft paper at the following web site which proposes a national Australian standard for captioning. I think this would be a good yardstick to measure what good captioning should look like.
