Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I support the comments of my colleague Dr Southcott, the member for Boothby. In his remarks, he touched on the consideration being afforded to businesses, particularly smaller businesses, in the transitional arrangements in the Tobacco Plain Packaging Bill. As Dr Southcott outlined, the coalition have at times been portrayed as not being as supportive, as we in fact have been, of the measures in this bill, and that is unfortunate. However, the particular concern which has exercised my mind is the way that small retailers are so often caught at the pointy end of changes such as those that will result from this bill. If we look at a range of earlier measures—for example, the graphic health warnings introduced at the retail level on 1 March 2006 and the reduced fire risk cigarettes which were phased in from 23 March 2006—and at the available lead-in periods of four and six months respectively, we see that the small business community was able to make the required transitions during its nonpeak periods. But the revised date for the implementation of the new arrangements in this bill creates quite a narrow window in which the manufacturers, and in turn the retailers, must comply with the new arrangements. In fact, the revised date is 1 December, which is right in the middle of the peak period for many retailers.

We are not of a mind to amend the bill—it has had a rather interesting journey thus far—but we are very concerned about the narrow window of time and that it will fall in a peak period for many small retailers. I urge the minister to reassure the opposition and the small retailers that there will be a collaborative and facilitative approach to the transition period rather than a punitive and strict compliance regime. I ask this in good faith and in the spirit in which the opposition have been supportive of what the government has been doing on plain packaging. Also, in consideration of the very real life workplace responsibilities that smaller retailers would face at the coalface, I ask the minister to consider a moratorium of prosecution during the first three months of the transitional period. That is not to say that the minister's enforcement activities would be completely truncated but rather to remind her that, where an inadvertent error may have been identified, the risk of a very heavy $220,000 fine would bankrupt most small retailers.

There is an opportunity to be supportive and collaborative in this transition period. There is an opportunity to facilitate the handling of inappropriate stock and its return. There is an opportunity to realise that the time around 1 December is a Christmas and summer peak period for retailers, with much on their plate, and that this is a difficult and unprecedented time to ask them to make a transition of the kind demanded by this bill, especially given that they are faced with a very heavy penalty if they get it wrong. I ask the minister to consider making a declaration or providing this House with some reassurance that the real-life challenges which small business retailers are facing are understood by the government and that, where an error is identified, guidance, coaching and facilitation will be the order of the day for the first three-month period. Frankly, Minister, small retailers are absolutely terrified. They have been subjected to local councils sending in people who are probably a good foot taller than me and who might well be a third of my age!

Mrs Elliot interjecting—

I know that is hard to imagine, Ma'am! The small retailers are at the pointy end of so many of these changes, whether it be the display bans—which, to bring about, small business incur another cost—or even the penalties they face for inadvertently selling to an under-age person, where the under-age person gets away scot-free. In a small corner store, half-a-dozen large adolescent males urging a shopkeeper to sell them tobacco can be quite intimidating. The small retailers are at the pointy end to begin with and, with these changes, they are again at the pointy end again, during a peak time in their business. There is no time during the year when their prospects to make a profit are as bright as over the Christmas-New Year period. To contend with this change and the risk of a penalty at this time is quite terrifying.

So, rather than reopening the bill, I see the way forward being a moratorium for the first three months on prosecution and on those stiff penalties. I am very hopeful that the minister will be able to give that reassurance and give some encouragement to the small businesses at the pointy end of yet another change in this space. (Time expired)

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