EMBARGOED UNTIL 4.3OPM CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
PRIME MINISTER
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
OPENING OF ACA PREMISES 30 MARCH 1984 -SYDNEY 0
Ladies and Gentlemen
It was with real pleasure that I accepted your invitation to
participate in this official opening of the Australian
Consumer Association's ( ACA's) new building.
I have for a long time been impressed with ACA's
contribution to the Australian consumer movement.
1984 has been something of a landmark year for the ACA. The
ACA is celebrating its 25th anniversary and this year its
magazine " Choice" passed the 200,000 subscription mark for
the first time. This suggests the Association is regularly
reaching at least a million readers and that its role in
assisting people make informed purchasing decisions is
widely appreciated.
No doubt these impressive new premises and laboratory
facilities for testing products will enable ACA to further
enhance the quality of its service to consumers.
But as you all know the ACA's role is wider than this.
The establishment in 1979 by ACA of a public affairs unit
was an important extension of its activities beyond the
traditional product testing role. The ACA has for some time
also been very active in seeking to secure attention to
consumer interests by Government decision-makers on a broad
range of matters from health care to communications. This
pressure from ACA was needed and has been effectively
applied. Partly as a result of such pressures Governments today are
more sensitive to legitimate consumer concerns. The
Australian Labor movement has for a long time shared those
concerns and my Government rates them highly.
2.
Indeed, in accord with the extensive! commitments in the 1982
ALP policy platform, the Australian Labor Government is
playing an active and innovative role in consumer affairs.
At a most fundamental level, and of particular interest to
consumers, has been the fact that the Government has turned
the economy on to a path of strong recovery. In doing so we
have laid the basis for continued non-inflationary growth
and increased employment opportunities in the medium and
longer term.. Particular priority has been given to
restoring equality in Australia's social and economic
fabric. Central to our strategy has been the Prices and Incomes
Accord which, as well as ushering in a new era of industrial
harmony in Australia, has provided a firm underpinning to
consumer confidence.
Our policies have helped to produce strong growth in private
consumption expenditure. Coupled with strong public
spending, rebuilding of stocks and our ability to export,
private consumption has been a major element in turning the
economy around and setting it on the path to sustained
recovery. The Government has also embarked on a course aimed at
facilitating structural change as a means of enhancing the
prospects of medium and longer term growth. Such change
will bring with it increased employment and improved living
standards. It should also benefit consumers directly. They
will enjoy lower prices made possible by increased
efficiency in Australian industry and by the reduced burden
of supporting high cost industries.
The Government recognises that a closely focussed set of
policy measures is also needed if more particular concerns
associated with consumer welfare are adequately to be
addressed. Accordingly the Australian Labor Government has
moved rapidly to put the necessary policies into place.
The new Prices Surveillance Authority, which began
operations on 19 March, will directly benefit consumers.
The Authority has been developed as an important instrument
of price restraint. The operations of the authority will
involve monitoring and examining applications for price
increases, and conducting inquiries into prices in
particular areas.
It is not anticipated that the authority will need to
monitor prices over a wide section of industry. The
Government acknowledges and accepts that competitive markets
provide the most effective defence against unwarranted price
increases. The selection of goods and services subjected to
surveillance will focus on areas where effective competitive
disciplines are not present and where price or wage
decisions have pervasive effects throughout the economy.
Another significant milestone for all Australian consumers
is the Medicare Scheme introduced on 1 February.
Those who will gain most from the launch of Medicare are the
two million Australians who up until now have not been
eligible for Government health benefits, who have not been
able to afford private health insurance, and who have had no
protection against crippling medical and hospital bills.
With the introduction of Medicare, for the first time in
many years, Australians are now able to face illness in the
family in the sure knowledge that medical services an~ d
public hospital accommodation and treatment are theirs by
right. All Australians regardless of income are now entitled to
Medicare benefits.
Nor shall we be deflected from this commitment by the
current obstructionism of the doctors.
The Government is dedicated to the operation of an
efficient, high standard health care system. We intend to
provide this through Medicare at a cost that is affordable
to the Australian people.
In this regard the Government simply cannot ignore questions
such as the rapidly increasing cost of diagnostic services.
Diagnostic service costs have increased 40% faster over the
past four years than have costs of all other medical
benefits. It is vital to the future of Medicare, and
clearly in the patients' interests, that such cost increases
by curbed. The Government is determined that they will be.
The Government also has a general responsibility to regulate
the use of public health facilities for private profit, to
ensure that exploitation of the providers of those
facilities the taxpayers does not occur. It takes this
responsibility most seriously.
Another major initiative of benefit to all Australians is
the protection afforded by the recently passed Sex
Discrimination Act. Protection is now guaranteed throughout
Australia against discrimination on the grounds of sex,
marital status or pregnancy in the provision of goods or
services, in working facilities available, in accommodation
and in the disposal of land. It is now, for example,
unlawful to deny a loan to a woman because she is a woman or
to refuse applications for emergency housing on the basis of
the applicant's marital status. The Government has now
ensured that those disadvantaged or alone at law have the
full protection of the law.*
4.
The enactment of the Trade Practices Act in 1974 by the then
Labor Government marked the major entry of the Commonwealth
into consumer affairs.
This Government is committed to ensuring the Act continues
to provide effective protection for consumers. To this end
a draft amending bill was released for public comment on 21
February 1984.
The Government wants to obtain the views of consumer groups
and other interested parties on the proposed amendments.
Their views will be taken into account before amending
legislation is introduced in the Parliament later this year.
The Government will continue to encourage and support the
active enforcement of the Trade Practices Act by the Trade
Practices Commission.
Under the previous Government the Commission was severely
hampered in its forcement activities by a ministerial
direction which required the Commsssion to limit its
consumer protection work to matters that raised issues of
importance at the national level and which were brought to
attention from outside the Commission. The Attorney-General
has recently revoked this restrictive direction.
There has, as well, been a substantial increase in the
number of prosecution proceedings instituted by the
Commission under the consumer protection provisions of the
Trade Practices Act during the past year. It has also been
proposed that penalties for breaches of the Act be increased
five-fold an increase that would bring penalties to a
level more likely to serve as a deterrant than was the case
previously. The Government is as well making useful progress in
consultation with the States and Territories on the
development of uniform consumer protection laws throughout
Australia. The Standing Committee of Commonwealth and State Consumer
Affairs Ministers is actively pursuing this issue, and has
established a special working party of officers to examine
it. State ministers have asked the Commonwealth to consider
a number of additional changes to the present Trade
Practices Act which they consider would facilitate the
achievement of uniformity by making the act a suitable basis
for mirror legislation elsewhere in the Commonwealth. A
list of these changes has been released for public comment.
Consumers also have a major interest in information relating
to Government activities, programs and service. The Freedom
of Information Act makes a substantial contribution to the
evolution of open Government in Australia.
The legislation has been strengthened by amendments which
came into force on 1 January 1984. Those amendments widen
the scope of the Act as well as clarifying and improving its
practical operation. They have also provided for
researchers being given access to material ante-dating the
original legislation. In this way we have given the Act a
greater practical significance.
I understand that ACA has been active in stimulating public
awareness of the rights of citizens under the new Act. In
particular, ACA is to be congratulated on its work with the
Public Interest Advocacy Centre in the development of a
handbook to assist community groups in using the FOL
legislation. The Government has also moved quickly to legislate to
protect consumers in other areas such as insurance.
Last year we introduced two Bills into Parliament one to
regulate the activities of Life and General Insurance Agents
to strengthen the finacial stability of the industry; the
other to improve the information flow and general
relationship between the insurer and the insured.
Public comment on the Bills is being analysed with a view to
proceeding with the Bills in the Autumn Session of
Parliament. The Government is also committed to ensuring that the
consumer voice will be heard and taken into account in
Government decision-making.
The Australian Federation of Consumer Organisations ( AFCO),
of which ACA is a member, was established in 1974 with the
sponsorship of the then Labor Government. AFCO receives
considerable financial support from the Government to assist
it in representing the consumer viewpoint to Government and
in industry policy formulation and decision-making bodies.
The Government is appointing consumer representatives to
appropriate advisory bodies. We have, for example, already
appointed Dr John Braithwaite of AFCO to EPAC, our chief
economic advisory council.
The new and expanded membership of the National Consumer
Affairs Advisory Council was announced on 15 March. The
Government expects the Council to play an increasing role in
developing policy advice on consumer affairs matters.
By revitalising the National Consumer Affairs Advisory
Council, which includes members from consumer organisations,
business, trade unions and Government, we have provided a
national focus for consumer interests. Through it we also
hope to foster more effective and productive co-operation
and liaison between business organisations and consumer
groups on matters of consumer interest.
Ladies and gentelmen,
Work is underway in many other areas, including consumer
education and information programs, product safety and
recall procedures for hazardous products, uniformity of
packaging and labelling and a national compensation scheme
for loss or damage resulting from the collapse of a travel
agency plus licensing legislation for travel agents.
Notwithstanding this, there is still much to be done to
ensure that consumer concerns are addressed in a
comprehensive an adequate manner.
The Government looks forward to meeting this challenge in
co-operation with a strong consumer movement.
In this regard ACA has a particularly important role to
play. It is therefore with pleasure that I formally open this new
building.