Page 3570 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991
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This monetary threshold has often wrought inequities. Why should a small business person who buys a backhoe for, say, $41,000 from an ACT trader have fewer rights against the supplier and manufacturer, if the machine breaks down or fails to live up to the salesperson's claims, than if he or she had travelled over the border and made the same purchase in Queanbeyan? The Government does not believe that this disparity should continue, and this is one of the reasons for including the wider definition of "consumer" in this Bill.
Fair trading legislation also benefits the community in other ways. For example, this Bill provides more efficient and less costly avenues of consumer redress. Actions by consumers against traders for breach of the fair trading provisions may be brought in the Magistrates Court or, where the amount is less than $5,000, the Small Claims Court.
In addition, the ACT Consumer Affairs Bureau will be charged with administering the proposed Act. The director will have access to a wide range of enforcement options, including injunctions, prosecutions and orders to disclose information or to publish advertisements. Under the Trade Practices Act, such actions are available only with the permission and oversight of the Federal Minister for Justice and Consumer Affairs.
Traders will also benefit from the introduction of these more comprehensive and effective compliance mechanisms. Unscrupulous traders often gain unmerited advantage from unfair, deceptive and anti-competitive trading practices which distort the marketplace. This Bill, like its New South Wales counterpart, contains provisions for developing industry codes of practice.
The Government also believes that fair traders will welcome the opportunity to participate in the development of these codes. Indeed, the Bill provides that such codes must be developed in consultation with the relevant industry and consumer groups. The draft codes are then presented to the Minister, who may approve them as regulations. As with all regulations made in the Territory, codes are disallowable by the Assembly under the Subordinate Laws Act.
One of the most valuable aspects of the introduction of codes is that they provide cost-effective ways of resolving consumers' disputes with traders. Each code will contain its own dispute resolution mechanism to be used before disputes go to court. As well as being enforceable by individuals, the codes may also be enforced by the Director of Consumer Affairs. The director will have the power to require traders to make a deed of undertaking to abide by a code of practice or make rectification for a breach of a code. It will be an offence for a trader to fail to make or honour an undertaking without good reason.
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