Page 2133 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 9 September 1992
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FAIR TRADING BILL 1992
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (4.12): Madam Speaker, I present the Fair Trading Bill 1992.
Title read by Acting Clerk.
MR CONNOLLY: I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
On 19 September last year I tabled an exposure draft of this Bill. The exposure draft was circulated for public comment. During the consultation period, industry and consumer groups made a number of written and oral submissions. The matters raised in these submissions have been considered and, where appropriate, incorporated in the Bill now before the Assembly.
The Fair Trading Bill 1992 completes the first stage of the Labor Government's strategy for developing up-to-date fair trading legislation to promote and enhance fair trading in the Territory. Work has commenced already on the second stage. Over the next two years the Government will be reviewing the Territory's patchwork of consumer protection laws in order to update them and, where appropriate, incorporate them in an omnibus Fair Trading Act. Territory consumers and traders will then have the best and most complete fair trading protection available. The passage of this Fair Trading Bill will also complete the first stage of the process by which the consumer protection provisions of the Commonwealth Trade Practices Act are mirrored in State and Territory fair trading laws throughout Australia.
Many of the obligations and benefits contained in this Bill are not new to Territory traders and consumers. Since it commenced in 1974, as an initiative of Attorney-General Lionel Murphy, the Commonwealth Trade Practices Act has imposed fair trading obligations on individuals in business as well as corporate traders in the Territory. In fact, even after this legislation commences, the Commonwealth Act will continue to operate in the Territory. However, I expect that, as a mechanism for consumer protection, it will be eclipsed by the enactment of our own fair trading law. This may come as a surprise to some. I have often been asked why it is necessary for the Territory to pass its own fair trading legislation. Consequently, I am glad to have this opportunity to explain the benefits of this legislation to the citizens of the Territory.
With self-government it is appropriate and important for the Territory to regulate its own marketplace. The Commonwealth Trade Practices Act focuses on the national perspective. Its consumer protection provisions are just one part of a greater legislative scheme aimed at maintaining competition throughout Australia. Although our Fair Trading Bill contains the same basic consumer protection provisions, it places them in the context of the ACT political and economic environment. Consequently, this law and any regulations made under it will reflect this Assembly's views about the fair trading rights and responsibilities of Territory consumers and traders. The ability to respond to the changing needs of our community is important in economic times such as these.
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