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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 8 Hansard (29 October) . . Page.. 2415 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (Acting Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice and Community Safety and Minister Assisting the Treasurer) (11.08): Mr Speaker, I present the Agents (Amendment) Bill No. 2) 1998, together with its explanatory memorandum.

Title read by Clerk.

MR HUMPHRIES: I move:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

This Bill makes a number of minor technical amendments to the Agents Act 1968. The amendments are consequential upon amendments to the travel compensation fund trust deed, which provides for the establishment and administration of a national travel compensation fund and a compensation scheme in relation to business carried on by travel agents. The trust deed is an integral part of the national cooperative scheme for the licensing of travel agents and the compensation of consumers who experience financial loss resulting from the collapse of a travel agency. The protections afforded to consumers under the trust deed apply in the ACT by virtue of the Agents Act. To hold a licence, a travel agent must be a contributor to the travel compensation fund.

The amendments to the trust deed stem from a 1994 decision of the Ministerial Council on Consumer Affairs to review the deed as part of a general review of the travel compensation trust fund. The trustees have resolved that the amendments will come into effect on 1 January 1999. For this reason, it is proposed that the operative provisions of the Act also commence on this date.

The amendments to the Act are necessary to reflect changes in the terminology used in the amended trust deed and because there are currently specific references to numbered clauses of the trust deed in the Act which need to be amended or removed. For instance, the Bill amends subsection 98(2) of the Act which presently specifies, with reference to numbered clauses of the trust deed, the circumstances when application may be made to the ACT Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of a decision of the board of trustees of the travel compensation fund.

The amendments do not involve any shift in the policy underlying the relevant provisions of the Agents Act. Rather, they are necessary to preserve the protections extended to ACT consumers through the Agents Act in relation to the monitoring of the financial viability of travel agents and the compensation of consumers who experience financial loss resulting from the failure of travel agents to account for client funds. I commend the Bill to the Assembly.

Debate (on motion by Mr Stanhope) adjourned.

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