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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 3 Hansard (27 March) . . Page.. 695 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Legislation also can set a tone within the community and a tone amongst ordinary people, who are the vast majority, who tend to want to obey the law; who tend to want to follow the way legislation is set. It is also important to understand that tone in this piece of legislation. It well may be, Mr Speaker, that somebody is taken to court and we then find that it is necessary to improve this piece of legislation. Well, then, let us do it at that stage.

I am pleased that, in the end, the Government did, albeit reluctantly, come to the party in supporting this protection for consumers. I think it is a very necessary piece of protection. I must say, Mr Speaker, that, as each new piece of technology hits us, we always wonder to what extent we should allow a total free-for-all or to what extent we should continue to protect consumers. I think that the overall responsibility of this legislature is to try to protect those who are in the least powerful position. I think that, in the introduction of such things as smart cards, there are many people who are made vulnerable in some ways, and this legislation assists in providing a protection for that vulnerability. It is with pleasure, then, Mr Speaker, that I support this legislation and congratulate the Labor Party for introducing it.

MS FOLLETT (11.59), in reply: I thank members of the Assembly for their support for this legislation. As I said in introducing the Bill, Mr Speaker, and as Mr Stefaniak has reiterated, this is an interim measure. The fact of the matter is that eventually we will need a national and, in my view, mandatory code of practice for the regulation of smart cards in Australia. Mr Speaker, the trial that has just commenced in the ACT will involve up to 10,000 residents of the Belconnen area, and it can, therefore, be seen as a quite extensive activity in our community. There are some 300 outlets, I believe, that have signed up for the trial, including the kinds of outlets that many people visit frequently, like petrol stations and McDonald's. So, it is very much an issue for our consumers in the ACT community.

I have been concerned all along that the level of education and the level of information about smart cards and the whole technology were not high enough to allow people to make a well-informed decision about whether they should be part of this trial and should embrace this technology. Mr Speaker, at the outset, I want to congratulate the Consumer Affairs Bureau, and indeed their Minister, for undertaking an extensive education campaign on the smart card technology. I think an indication of some of the underlying or hidden issues in smart cards can be gleaned from one of the phrases that are being used in that education campaign - "Sexy or sinister?" - in relation to smart cards. It is my view that there are some sinister aspects, and I think that those aspects ought to be brought out into the open. I do not believe that it is widely known, for instance, that the smart cards actually have three chambers in them, or the capacity for three different types of operation. The first of those chambers is the electronic purse, which is like cash. You can get $200, $500, or whatever it is, from that electronic purse without using a PIN, and it can be seen as an extremely convenient way to shop. The second chamber is a debit card, where you can draw on your own funds. The third chamber - which is silent for the purposes of this trial, but there is a third chamber - is a credit facility. So, Mr Speaker, ultimately these so-called smart cards could take over not only an individual consumer's banking but, in fact, the whole of the everyday banking of a great many people in the ACT.

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