Page 2139 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 9 September 1992
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CONSUMER AFFAIRS (AMENDMENT) BILL 1992
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (4.31): Madam Speaker, I present the Consumer Affairs (Amendment) Bill 1992.
Title read by Acting Clerk.
MR CONNOLLY: I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
Madam Speaker, the Consumer Affairs (Amendment) Bill 1992 and the Fair Trading Bill that I have just presented are related. The amendments to the Consumer Affairs Act contained in this Bill are another part of the Labor Government's strategy to promote fair trading in the ACT. The amendments fall into three categories, each of which relates to one of the three main purposes of the Consumer Affairs Act. Before discussing the amendments in detail, I would like to outline these three main purposes of the Consumer Affairs Act and the relationship of the amendments to them.
The primary purpose of the Consumer Affairs Act is to establish the ACT Consumer Affairs Bureau and confer power on the Director of Consumer Affairs to carry out certain functions under this and related consumer protection legislation. As set out in section 14 of the Act, these functions are: To receive, investigate and take action in response to consumers' complaints about unfair trading practices; to conduct research and publicise information on matters affecting the interests of consumers; and to provide information about consumer protection laws in the Territory. The Director of Consumer Affairs and the bureau will also be responsible for the administration of the proposed Fair Trading Act. The amendments proposed in this Bill will assist the director and the bureau to carry out those new functions.
The second main purpose of the Consumer Affairs Act is to establish a mechanism for community consultation about consumer affairs and fair trading matters. The Consumer Affairs Act allows me, as the Minister, to appoint a consumer affairs advisory committee from which I can seek advice and guidance on matters affecting the interests of ACT consumers. In July this year I appointed a new advisory committee to advise me on issues of concern to ACT consumers. I have just met with the committee to advise the members about the Government's priorities for the consumer affairs portfolio and to seek their views on appropriate strategies for achieving our objectives. I am pleased that the amendments in this Bill will allow the Government to increase our already significant level of community consultation. The Bill provides for the establishment of a specialist advisory committee on product safety which will take over responsibilities presently conferred by the Act on an unspecified advisory committee.
The third category of amendments in the Bill relate to the enhancement of the product safety provisions, to provide a wider range of options for protecting the ACT community from unsafe products. The original product safety provisions were inserted into the Act in 1982 and have not been altered since. They have served the Territory well, but they are not as comprehensive as their more modern counterparts in the Commonwealth Trade Practices Act and other State and Northern Territory product safety legislation. Therefore, in line with the Government's commitment to better consumer protection for the ACT, this Bill contains amendments that will update these product safety provisions.
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