SUBJECTS: Product safety, Petrol Commissioner, FuelWatch
Back home the federal government is reportedly moving to introduce uniform national consumer protection laws, to replace existing state and federal regulations. It’s claimed the reform would save consumers hundreds of millions of dollars. For more on the planned national scheme, Marius Benson is speaking to the Assistant Treasurer Chris Bowen.
MARIUS BENSON:
Chris Bowen it sounds like a good idea to normalise, or nationalise, the standards for consumer protection laws, but can you give an example of just what the problems that arise at the moment from a fragmented state based system are?
CHRIS BOWEN:
Well at the moment there is no product safety ban, or standard which applies across the country. So, a manufacturer or an importer must work out the different rules that apply in each state. So there are different requirements, different time-frames that apply in every state and territory and that’s really bad for business, this has been on the agenda of every ministerial council meeting since 2003 and yet we’ve been unable to reach an agreement. I’m determined to reach an agreement; I’ve been very encouraged by the response from the states.
MARIUS BENSON:
So you’ve got the states on side?
CHRIS BOWEN:
Well look we’ve been talking with all the state ministers a lot, and we’ve been working through the issues and there’s been a good, co-operative relationship and I’m confident that we can strike an agreement at the Ministerial Council on Consumer Affairs meeting in May.
MARIUS BENSON:
Now people are saying there’s a big financial benefit from this, but you seem to be able to make up your own number; the Productivity Commission says savings might be $1.5 billion or maybe $4.5 billion.
CHRIS BOWEN:
Well that’s the Productivity Commission view on the consumer framework across the board, it’s very hard to quantify this, but clearly the major beneficiaries would be retail and manufacturing. These numbers are very hard to quantify, but clearly there’s a very significant benefit for business for more harmonisation.
MARIUS BENSON:
And what about consumers individually, would they notice any difference?
CHRIS BOWEN:
Probably not, this is more about more consistency for business across the board. Consumers should just be reassured that if they go into a shop to buy a product, it is a safe one. That is the bottom line and that is what can’t be jeopardised and won’t be jeopardised as part of this process.
MARIUS BENSON:
So how soon will the standards be national if things go well?
CHRIS BOWEN:
Well we’ve still got a bit of talking to do to the states, but we would hope to have agreement in May and a quick implementation from then.
MARIUS BENSON:
Can I ask you a question in your capacity as the Minister responsible for competition policy because the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission has brought out a fairly damning finding against Coles supermarkets saying that Coles supermarkets, the discount petrol that they offer with discount vouchers from the supermarkets to the service stations they’re linked to, Coles is now, according to the ACCC the prices setter, the high price mark of petrol prices.
CHRIS BOWEN:
Well, this is the Petrol Commissioner at work, this is why we have a petrol commissioner, one – to ensure that there’s no anti-competitive conduct and two – to ensure that there’s a lot more information for consumers. That’s what he’s done over the last 24 hours; he’s getting on with his job, which I welcome. Of course, when we have FuelWatch up and running there’ll be a lot more transparency in the system and people will be able to tell who the price leader is just by going on the website everyday.
MARIUS BENSON:
And what do you think of Coles?
CHRIS BOWEN:
Well, we want a competitive petrol industry and if you are a price leader, if you’re the first people to put prices up then the market should bring those prices back down, but what we need is FuelWatch to ensure that consumers can determine exactly where the cheapest price is and they can make the decisions based on that.
MARIUS BENSON:
Fairly complicated equation though, isn’t it by the time you figure out how much the discount voucher is from the shopping you just did at Coles and then you go to the service station to buy the petrol, it’s all a bit baffling for the consumer.
CHRIS BOWEN:
Well a lot of consumers spend a lot of time working it out; others perhaps may not spend that time. What the petrol commissioner is trying to do is give people as much information and make it as simple as possible for them.
MARIUS BENSON:
What would you like to see Coles do?
CHRIS BOWEN:
Well I would like to see petrol prices as low as possible across the board. As I say, if we have FuelWatch up and running later in the year, as we’re working to do and as we need to get through to parliament, then petrol stations across the board will need to put in their best and cheapest possible price the day before, otherwise they’re going to lose a lot of market share and this is an industry which relies on a lot of market share. So FuelWatch will sort a lot of these problems out.
MARIUS BENSON:
Chris Bowen, thankyou very much.
CHRIS BOWEN:
Pleasure Marius