Page 2917 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 15 August 1990
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Debate (on motion by Ms Follett) adjourned.
DOOR-TO-DOOR TRADING BILL 1990
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (4.27): Mr Deputy Speaker, I present the Door-to-Door Trading Bill 1990. I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
Mr Deputy Speaker, this Bill is a consumer protection measure, the first of a series of new and updated laws which the Alliance Government has announced it will introduce in the ACT, including fair trading legislation, model uniform trade measurement legislation and updating of a range of other consumer affairs laws. This action is long overdue. The Alliance Government is determined to put the ACT back at the forefront in consumer affairs law. This Bill replaces a law developed in the late 1960s. It is based on model uniform legislation developed through the Standing Committee of Consumer Affairs Ministers, a meeting of which I attended recently in Perth and which finalised agreement on uniform trade measurement legislation.
Mr Wood: You want to get an "A" mark, do you? It would be better than the "D" you got last time.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Wood interjects and says we received a "D" mark. That marking related to his leader and I suggest that he might wish to explain himself later in the party room.
Mr Wood: It had your photograph there.
MR COLLAERY: I assure the house that I have not gone anywhere near a knife in that regard. That photograph was meant to be that of the Leader of the Opposition.
In broad terms, the Bill has two objectives which are fundamental to the Alliance's commercial and consumer affairs policy. Firstly, it is designed to minimise losses caused to ordinary consumers by unfair marketing practices, and remember this measure operates in the setting of the consumer's own home, where the consumer, through no fault of his or her own, can be made vulnerable. Secondly, the measure is one which helps to promote a fair marketplace generally and reduces anti-competitive practices which disadvantage the honest trader trying to market a quality product.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I am confident that the business community and consumers alike will welcome this measure which will discourage unscrupulous traders and at the same time prevent consumers from being pressured into buying goods and/or services without a proper opportunity to examine the deal they are getting.
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