Page 2858 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 21 October 1992
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based on a model or actually operates to incorporate by reference other legislation, perhaps national legislation, to ensure that as far as possible the law is the same from one State to another. That is a very laudable process. I think it is a better process than having the Federal Government simply assume all the power to make those sorts of laws. But it is a process that entails some cooperation between State and Territory governments to make sure that they have a standard set of laws. Indeed, the Mutual Recognition (Australian Capital Territory) Bill, which the Chief Minister, I understand, tabled in the Assembly last week, has the impact of further strengthening that process, providing us with the standard and level of law-making which occurs across the country.
This Bill and the accompanying Consumer Affairs Bill, therefore, have in a sense a slightly different direction. You might even say that they go in the opposite direction to those sorts of provisions. We have here a Bill which provides for the ACT to have laws that are potentially quite different from those applying in other places. Given that for most of the last 20 years we have enjoyed the standard law applying across the whole of Australia in the form of the Trade Practices Act, with some exceptions - I understand that there are some provisions that do not apply everywhere, but for the most part applying across the whole of Australia - it now seems a little strange that we are retreating a little into our own cocoon and providing for legislation that is peculiar and particular only to the ACT. In the Minister's presentation speech he said:
Although our Fair Trading Bill contains the same basic consumer protection provisions -
that is, the same as in the Trade Practices Act -
it places them in the context of the ACT political and economic environment. Consequently, this law and any regulation made under it will reflect this Assembly's views about the fair trading rights and responsibilities of Territory consumers and traders.
Admittedly, it does not do that yet. All it does is reflect the Commonwealth Trade Practices Act as it stands today. But eventually, presumably, we are going to see amendments to the Fair Trading Act which progressively will incorporate changes at the ACT level. I assume that that process, together with the process of enacting codes of practice, will provide a measure of idiosyncrasy in the ACT which it is obviously the Government's desire to achieve.
I hope that the Minister will be able to clear up, in my mind at least, why the Government pursues a different direction in this Bill from the other Bills I have referred to - for example, the Mutual Recognition Bill the Chief Minister introduced last week. What is the reason for this decision to depart from a national piece of legislation, or a national program, and pursue a local one? I know that the decision to enact fair trading legislation was made some seven or eight years ago at least - in 1983, I think it was - so it is a decision of some long standing and it has obviously been followed by other jurisdictions. But I am still curious as to the reason for that departure in direction. I hope that the Minister will be able to enlighten us on that.
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