Page 4104 - Week 14 - Thursday, 25 October 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Members can be and have been chosen to represent areas that are of concern to the bureau. Of course, new ones come up all the time - and let us think about petrol prices. In this way the committee will work alongside the Consumer Affairs Bureau. We have already seen one benefit of this. Last week Jennifer Needham was appointed to the committee. She has expertise in the area of environmental markets. As you would be aware, this is a new issue that is of growing concern to the Government and, I hope, to all of us. Now that Ms Needham is on the committee the Government has an adviser close at hand.
The Act, as amended by this Bill, will also allow for the establishment of other committees for specific issues for temporary purposes. Here again there is the question of the aged. I am rather honing an axe here, am I not? This flexibility is simply not present in the Act as it stands, and I hope it will be in the new arrangements. A further advantage of this committee, Mr Speaker, is that it is more cost-effective than the existing council, as members of the committee volunteer their time. This advantage is not one that any of us can afford to overlook. Thinking of that volunteer effort, often people over 65 are the ones who are best in a position to do that.
MR STEFANIAK (11.15): Mr Speaker, I, too, would like to bring the advantages of the Consumer Affairs (Amendment) Bill to the attention of the house. The Consumer Affairs Council had, as one of its functions, the responsibility for the banning of dangerous goods and the prescribing of safety standards in relation to products. With self-government it is appropriate that such matters should be in the hands of the Minister who is accountable to the electorate and advised by the Consumer Affairs Bureau, rather than by a body of government nominees.
Before self-government it was appropriate that these matters should be dealt with in this manner because the Federal Minister responsible was not close at hand. However, the ACT now has its own representative and responsible Government and the old structure is no longer applicable. The ACT Consumer Affairs Bureau is now a member of the New South Wales product safety committee and has always had a product safety officer. Thus it stands to reason that a Minister should be responsible for product safety. The council duplicated, in part, the work of the Consumer Affairs Bureau. It is also appropriate that matters such as consumer education, consumer investigations and inquiries should be the responsibility of the Minister who is here in the ACT and who is accountable.
Mr Speaker, there is one last issue that I would like to address, and that is that these amendments will update and rationalise the penalty provisions of the Act. The original Consumer Affairs Act was introduced in 1973. The penalties have not been increased since then and therefore are unrealistic and out of date. The Consumer Affairs Act imposes penalties in three areas: people administering the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .