Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move opposition amendments (4), (5) and (6) on sheet 5344:

(4)    Schedule 3, item 7, page 11 (line 4), omit “Omit “$3,000,000”, substitute $10,000,000”“, substitute “Repeal the subsection”.

(5)    Schedule 3, item 8, page 11 (line 6), omit “Omit “$30,000,000”, substitute “$10,000,000”“, substitute “Repeal the subsection”.

(6)    Schedule 3, page 11 (after line 6), after item 8, insert:

8A Subsection 51AC (11)

Repeal the subsection.

Labor’s amendments deal with the issue of the threshold for section 51AC on unconscionable conduct. The $3 million threshold for section 51AC on unconscionable conduct is abolished, and the bill proposes to increase this to $10 million. The 2004 Senate Economics References Committee majority report into the Trade Practices Act recommended that the $3 million limit be abolished. Labor agree with this recommendation, as a threshold is arbitrary and unconscionable conduct should be illegal regardless of the size of the transaction or the businesses involved. Labor’s amendments ensure that all small business transactions will be covered, as there are circumstances in which the transaction may be more than $10 million; hence our amendments to remove it.