Tim Hammond (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister, I note, has often thrown down the gauntlet and has indicated that I have not yet played, so we might use this as a bit of a warm-up. I might only come off 13 steps as opposed to my normal 24- or 25-step run-up, and I thank those opposite for their words of support.

My remarks are directed to the minister in his capacity as, perhaps, the poorer cousin of his portfolio, I have to say—that is, the consumers. We do not sit too far away from each other in question time, the minister and I, and I often hear him cry, perhaps somewhat rhetorically, 'Why do you hate small business?' He often says this. Not only am I proud to be a champion and great friend of small business, having grown up in a small business myself—my late father ran a real estate agency off the sweat of his own brow; Hammond & Co. it was called, in the South Shore Centre in Mend Street, South Perth, in Deputy Speaker Irons' electorate—but also I would like to think that those on this side are great friends of consumers.

How does that compare to the minister's track record, in relation to being an advocate for consumers? Perhaps the amount of productivity from the minister, in relation to attention focused on consumers as opposed to small business, tells the tale that we need to hear. In order to stay abreast of the portfolio not only do I constantly have my ears to the ground, in relation to stakeholders and what they require from advocates in this place, but also I regularly get the minister's email publications—press releases, speeches or transcripts of media interviews—and I go through them quite regularly. The statistics are telling.

Since his boilerplate press releases welcoming the publication of the Productivity Commission report into the ACL regulators on 12 April and the ACL review on 19 April, the minister has published on his ministerial website 37 media releases, 20 transcripts of media interviews or press conferences and five speeches. For those playing this at home, that is 62 in total. Yet a word search of all these publications reveals that only six of them include the word consumer. That is less than 10 per cent of the output of this minister being devoted to looking at any issues relevant to consumer affairs. Zero transcripts. Zero speeches.

I did raise this issue in the House a couple of weeks ago, in an MPI, and we ran a word count. The minister did go through his response by referring to the word consumer 13 times in his speech. That is 1.3 times per minute. In fairness, one of those times was when the minister was referring to himself as the minister for consumer affairs, so let us call it 12 mentions. Since that debate he has published another 10 media releases and four transcripts. Only one mentions consumers—in a joint media release with the member for Cowper about country-of-origin labelling for milk. Maybe the member for Cowper is looking to take on the member for Riverina's consumer affairs responsibilities, because it does not seem to me like the minister wants them. And this is not crying over spilt milk, I will have you know.

Having handed out a few brick bats to the minister, perhaps a bouquet—which relates to a bipartisan approach to one of Labor's long-held policies that we took to the election, that I am pleased to see the minister took up with gusto. That is in relation to Labor's policy of increasing maximum penalties for anti-consumer conduct under the Australian Consumer Law. And doesn't it all give us a warm glow when those reach across the aisle and accept our policies—it is a victory for commonsense.

The questions I have for the minister simply relate to those penalties. What is the time frame for implementing the increased penalties? Given the 2009 COAG agreement with state governments about the Australian Consumer Law, is the minister's budget announcement predicated on the hope that state consumer affairs ministers will agree? Has the minister sought any agreement from the ministers of the states? And has it been forthcoming? I have a final question for the minister, as I finish my long run, on the fifth ball of my six-ball over, and that is whether the increase in the maximum penalties for anticonsumer conduct will be accompanied by an increase in the ACCC's litigation budget? (Time expired)

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