Page 375 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 13 May 1992
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in within this two-week sitting - that is, by next week, or by tomorrow - we will not see any legislation in place until August of this year at the earliest, and that would be extremely unfortunate. As Mr Connolly himself said two years ago, this is urgent. If, however, the Government does not manage to introduce its legislation soon, we at least have some action to provide greater consumer protection.
The Bill allows the Minister to prescribe what are known as product information standards by placing notices in the Gazette. These can prescribe a number of items in relation to the product and can require information relating to the durable life of goods to be included in the packaging. It would be an offence for a person to supply goods that are intended to be used by a consumer if there is a prescribed consumer product safety standard or a product information standard in respect of the goods and the goods do not comply with that standard.
It would also be an offence to sell goods if they do not comply with the product information standard, and if the Minister sees fit to prescribe those standards in relation to the durable life of goods it would be an offence to sell goods when they have exceeded their durable life, which is shown as the use-by date.
As members opposite will know, this legislation is substantially the same as that Mr Connolly brought in last year, as I have already said. There may be some deficiencies in this legislation, and I foreshadow that some amendments might be necessary if it does in fact go forward for debate and passage. It is my intention to let the Bill lie on the table for as long as we can reasonably afford. I invite the Government to give some indication of when the substantial food legislation is likely to be introduced in the Assembly. If the legislation is unlikely to see the light of day for some time, then I certainly intend to proceed with the passage of my Bill in the near future.
Madam Speaker, I think I have said enough about Mr Connolly and the Government's former position, in opposition, on legislation of this kind. I can only say that it is matters such as this which led to Mr Connolly getting such an unfortunate rating from the magazine Consuming Interest late last month. If we were looking purely at this area of legislation, we would be giving him an F; but I remain hopeful that the work that was done by the former Government in this area, which I assume is being carried on by this Government in the meantime, will quickly come to fruition. The Chief Minister shakes her head; but I hope that it will come to fruition quickly, and that we can provide some quick relief to citizens of the Territory.
Mr Berry: What was done by the former government?
MR HUMPHRIES: Those opposite are saying, "You were in office for 18 months. Why didn't you do something?". You cannot keep blaming the Alliance for everything that you have failed to do. You said that legislation was urgent. You said that two years ago. You have been in office for almost a year, and I have to say that you really are in a position to be able to bring legislation forward if it is available, and you have not done so. You really should be thinking about what has gone wrong in the system to cause that to happen. Madam Speaker, I commend the Bill to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Mr Connolly) adjourned.
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