Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I take this opportunity to thank senators who have participated in the debate today on theTrade Practices Amendment (Australian Consumer Law) Bill 2009. On 2 October 2008, the Council of Australian Governments reached a historic agreement to create a single national generic consumer protection law to be called the Australian Consumer Law. This bill is the first legislative step to give effect to COAG’s agreement. It will implement key elements of the Australian Consumer Law, including a new national unfair contract terms law and new penalties, enforcement powers and options for consumer redress for the ACCC and ASIC. Attempts to create a single consumer law have been made in the past. Notably, in the early 1980s the Australian, state and territory governments agreed to create harmonised consumer protection laws. This initiative succeeded in creating harmonised laws for a time, but consistency was all too soon lost as individual jurisdictions amended and augmented their laws over time. COAG’s decision of 2008 differs from previous attempts at harmonisation in that it established an applications legislation regime. Amendments to the Commonwealth’s consumer protection law will automatically apply in all states and territories. In addition, all jurisdictions have agreed to be bound by the Intergovernmental Agreement for the Australian Consumer Law, which sets out the manner in which changes to the consumer law will be made in the future. COAG made this intergovernmental agreement at its meeting on 2 July 2009.

Consideration of this legislation is significant because we are asking not only that the Australian parliament legislate its content but, ultimately, that all states and territory parliaments adopt this legislation.

On 25 June 2009 this bill was referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Economics for inquiry and report. In the course of its inquiry the committee received 58 public submissions and held public hearings in Canberra and Sydney reflecting a wide range of interests in this legislation from business and consumers. This follows an extensive consultation process undertaken by the Productivity Commission in 2008 as well as by the government in February and May of 2009. The committee tabled its report on the provisions of the bill on 7 September 2009. The committee expressed its strong support for the bill and recommended that the bill be passed. I note that the coalition members of the committee have also recorded their broad support for the bill. I thank senators for their participation in the committee’s inquiry as well as the wider debate on this legislation.

This bill represents a significant milestone in achieving a lasting national consumer protection law. That said, the creation of a national unfair contract terms law, and the strengthening of the enforcement regime for the consumer protection provisions of the Trade Practices Act, are also worthy objectives in their own right. I am aware of the concerns that the proposed amendments to the unfair test and the unfair contract terms law could effectively turn the detrimental requirements into a separate test, and in a manner that negatively impacts on the consumer, by requiring that actual detriment must be proved. Contrary to these concerns the proposed amendment requires the court to consider whether application of or reliance on the terms would cause detriment to the parties disadvantaged by the term. This would involve a determination of whether such detriment does exist or would exist if the term was relied upon.

The ACL reforms will be completed via a second bill to be introduced in early 2010. The second bill will include a national consumer product and safety regulatory regime as well as enhancement to the existing consumer protection regime based on the best practice amongst state and territory laws.

We are about to have another minister take on the detailed consideration of these amendments, which I trust will be canvassed in great detail. I look forward to that occurring. I commend the bill to the chamber.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.