Page 5327 - Week 17 - Thursday, 13 December 1990
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In a sense it is unfortunate that such regulation is necessary, but the reality is that there is a significant minority of traders who are prepared to adopt unfair practices and it falls to the Government to develop a scheme to protect consumers from them. The concept of caveat emptor, or "let the buyer beware", is no longer appropriate to the sophisticated, highly technical marketplace of today because the normal consumer simply cannot properly examine or check goods before he or she buys them. Indeed, a vast range of goods are packaged so that this is impossible.
Of course, this measure will be welcomed by the majority of traders also. For them it means an improved regulation of competitors who are not prepared to compete by fair means, and, more importantly, it means certainty. The trader can be sure that the law relating to trade measurement will be the same in the ACT and in New South Wales, and any other place in Australia. I wish to conclude by congratulating my government officials on this Bill and by commending the work of the officers of the ACT Public Service who are continuing to work on the development of the package. I unreservedly commend this Bill to the Assembly. I look forward to the commencement of the uniform trade measurement scheme in 1991. I present the explanatory memorandum for this Bill.
Debate (on motion by Mr Connolly) adjourned.
POISONS AND DRUGS (AMENDMENT) BILL 1990
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (12.13 am): I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
I table today the poisons and Drugs (Amendment) Bill 1990 to amend items in the schedules. It is an important measure to update ACT poisons lists to implement the most recent recommendations of Australia's foremost health and medical authority, the National Health and Medical Research Council, for the scheduling of poisons and drugs.
To place the legislation in context, let me state that there is a strong commitment to the policy that there should be sensible harmonisation and consistency in scheduling of drugs throughout Australia. The NHMRC has a standard for the uniform scheduling of drugs and poisons - SUSDP for short. Amending schedules are adopted by the council on the recommendations of the Drugs and Poisons Schedule Committee each half year, and the latest published schedules should replace those included in the existing Act. The standard has, whenever practicable, been implemented by the ACT Board of Health. In order to continue this practice, revised schedules of drugs and poisons published under the Poisons and Drugs Act 1978 have
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