Page 5326 - Week 17 - Thursday, 13 December 1990
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replace existing legislation enacted over 40 years ago. The Fair Trading Bill, which I expect to be able to present to the Assembly early in the new year, will be another example of new legislation in the Government's program. In other areas, the Government has sought to update existing legislation. The Credit (Amendment) Act 1990, enacted in March 1990, and the Consumer Affairs (Amendment) Act 1990 are examples of this.
These have all been significant reforms which have involved my Law Office and the Consumer Affairs Bureau in a considerable development effort, for which I have no hesitation in commending them. These initiatives also demonstrate the Government's commitment to action in a range of fields which have been neglected in recent years, particularly in the years leading up to self-government.
This Bill is part of a comprehensive trade measurement package including four sets of regulations covering prepackaged articles, weighbridges, measuring instruments such as scales and petrol bowsers, and other matters. The main elements of the package are this Bill and a Trade Measurement (Administration) Bill which will deal with matters such as the appointment of inspectors and other staff to administer the scheme. These staff will transfer from the present office of trading standards in the Consumer Affairs Bureau.
Taken together, these measures form a large and quite complex package of legislation. It regulates an area of considerable importance to the average consumer, even though for the most part he or she transacts almost daily as a consumer in the purchase of measured goods or commodities without being aware of the system of regulation which underpins those transactions. The average consumer has no choice but to take it for granted that the set of scales, or the petrol pump, or the label stating a weight which determines the price he or she is to pay for goods, is correct. He or she has no means of checking. The maintenance and calibration of such measuring machines is a highly technical area. The consumer is entirely in the hands of the trade measurement regulators and the laws under which they operate, particularly in these days when automatic measuring machines and prepackaged articles and commodities are more and more available.
Regulation in this area by the government agency goes on quietly and without fanfare; but, if you were tempted to think that it was unnecessary, then I suggest that you visit the trade measurement office at Kingston and talk to its inspectors, take a look at the large store of illegally labelled or packaged goods which the office has confiscated or, better still, visit the Magistrates Court on one of those all too regular occasions when the agency is obliged to prosecute traders for attempting to rip-off the public.
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