Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak on the motion brought to this House on franchising. Each and every member of this parliament has had problems with people who have been caught up with a franchise. Recently I have been working with some constituents in my electorate who had a double whammy, and I referred to it in a speech that I made in the House earlier. They have been caught up in the renovations of a large shopping centre. The franchisor is very keen to maintain a good relationship with the shopping centre to ensure that they have access to shopping centres throughout Australia. On the other hand, I have some constituents who, because of the renovations to this particular shopping centre, have lost 75 per cent of their takings. These people have been to mediation with the shopping centre management and with the franchisor. The franchisor and the shopping centre can reach an agreement, but my constituents are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. They are losing all their life savings. These are ordinary Australians that decided that they wanted to invest in small business but, because of the relationship that exists between them and the franchisor and between them and the shopping centre, they are caught in the middle and they are going to be the ones that lose. That is quite a sad situation and one that needs to be addressed.

I am really pleased to see the member for Oxley in here because I know he is currently conducting an inquiry into franchising. As chair of that committee he has been going around Australia listening and taking evidence from various people. I know he would be hearing all the problems that people are experiencing. He has told us that, whilst he has been going around with the committee, there has been an extraordinary amount of interest from stakeholders in the franchising community, and I would argue that that would be from both franchisors and franchisees. I would be interested to talk to him a little later and see if he has come across the situation I have been talking about here tonight. He has indicated that it is quite common for franchisees to be caught in the relationship between shopping centres and the franchisor. In the inquiry he has adopted a very broad approach. He is open-minded. He and the committee are keen to get to the core issues in relation to franchising. I commend their efforts and I commend this motion.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

See this speech in context