Page 4105 - Week 14 - Thursday, 25 October 1990
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Act who divulge information face a maximum penalty of $5,000 or two years imprisonment; those who hinder or obstruct the administering of the Act could pay $1,000 or face six months imprisonment - the penalty for the offence is $5,000 for a company; and the penalty for breaching product safety orders or standards will be raised to $5,000 or two years imprisonment for an individual, and $25,000 for a company. Those penalties need to be introduced if ACT law is to be consistent with penalties in other jurisdictions and with sound legal policy.
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (11.17), in reply: Mr Speaker, I thank members for their comments, I thank the Opposition in particular for supporting this Bill, and I thank Dr Kinloch for that useful observation about representation for those aged over 65 years. Members will recall that one of the first amendments moved to a Bill in this Assembly was that moved at the behest of Dr Kinloch to exclude the age discrimination which still pervades much of our legislation. It concerned those who may be appointed to statutory committees and the like who are aged over 65 years. That was a discriminatory device and the Assembly - largely unreported - adopted that recommendation unanimously and agreed to it.
Mr Speaker, Mr Connolly mentioned that the Government had not brought forward major consumer reforms. He was not specific; but, if the Opposition had allowed the Government to table its legislative program when it offered to, the Opposition would have known, of course, that a whole variety of instruments are scheduled in this area. My colleague Mr Humphries has foreshadowed amendments to the pure foods legislation and the rest, and the Government has moved decisively to appoint Jennifer Needham to this consumer committee. She has had practical working experience both as a retailer in a health food store and as a person who is well attuned to the organic farming, organic food issues that currently attract many Australians, and also to the environmental marketing issues, particularly the marketing issues involving deceptive advertising and deceptive packaging of products. Sometimes a false appellation is placed on some product, such as the use of green spots when the product itself does not have any involvement at all in organic production or preservation of the environment.
Mr Speaker, I have sought advice from my office in relation to the question as to whether the current committee has anyone aged over 65 years. I am waiting for that advice. Mr Speaker, the explanatory memorandum for this Bill has indicated to the Assembly and to the Canberra public that the Alliance Government is committed to areas such as consumer education, consumer investigations and inquiries. The main role of the Consumer Affairs Bureau is principally in the areas of education and regulation. Certainly in recent weeks the bureau has put a lot of work into monitoring the price of petrol, for instance. It also determines whether there are any issues that need to be
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