Andrew Leigh:
Well good morning. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury.
Today, the Albanese government is putting dodgy retailers on notice that they need to do the right thing by Australian consumers. Australians are going to be doing a lot of shopping over the course of the next few weeks, and Australians have a right to know that whether they’re shopping in‑store or online, they’re getting goods that are safe.
Since coming to office, the Albanese government has stood up for Australian consumers and we’ve increased the penalties for anti‑consumer conduct to $50 million. We’ve provided tens of millions of dollars to the competition watchdog so they can crack down on bad behaviour. And we’ve worked with states and territories to make product safety a priority for consumer ministers around the country.
If you go into a store, you have certain rights. It’s important to recognise that those rights apply, whether or not the retailer says that they do. You have a right if you purchase a product that doesn’t work to receive a replacement or a refund.
Australians need to also be careful of tactics that retailers will sometimes deploy in order to put pressure on them. This kind of undue pressure can include misleading sales countdown timers or suggestions of across‑the‑board discounts within a store. Consumers need to know that their rights exist whether or not they purchase additional warranties, and that sometimes consumer guarantees can provide more protection to consumers than those additional warranties.
I want to thank CHOICE that has worked very carefully with consumer and competition regulators in order to identify instances of unsafe products. In this box, I’ve got a number of unsafe products that CHOICE has identified which could cause harm to consumers. They include a watch without a secure part for the button battery. We know button batteries can be really dangerous. They can cause injury or death to children within a couple of hours and that’s why it’s required that if you have a button battery, it needs to be properly secured. This one isn’t.
We’ve also got a flashing mouth guard with a charging section which you can see allows the button battery to fall out. A child’s toy that doesn’t comply with Australian requirements.
We’ve got a child’s flashing tutu. A beautiful little tutu except for the fact that it’s button battery can easily be accessed. And so, a child who is playing with this could inadvertently find themselves injured by the button battery.
These sorts of products are banned by the Australian Consumer Law and if consumers see them in stores, they should be quick to call them out. It is important to recognise that these product safety pledges are there for a reason – to look after consumers.
Now yesterday, the ACCC released its annual report from the Product Safety Pledge that the ACCC has concluded with a number of large retailers; Amazon, AliExpress and eBay. They’ve reported that over the course of the past year, there have been some 31,000 products withdrawn from sale on those online platforms – a 60 per cent increase on last year.
That reflects the important work that the Product Safety Pledge is doing. A pledge which commits those retailers to do more than is required under the law. But it’s also a reminder that there are a lot of dodgy products out there and it’s important for consumers to be eyes and ears and to be reporting those breaches to the ACCC or to their state or territory regulator.
Together, we can ensure that Christmas is a fun time and a safe time for Australian consumers and their families. Very happy to take questions.
Journalist:
Assistant Minister, you’ve chosen to highlight the button batteries, particularly today. Do you have a high expectation that many of these will be on the market in Australia?
Leigh:
We know button batteries are in many products and they provide a degree of convenience – everything from toys to medical products. But it’s critical that those button batteries are properly secured. We’ve seen horrendous stories of children being injured by button batteries, and it is vital that every product on the shelves at Christmas complies with the law.
Journalist:
So just to check, you think there is a significant risk that these will be on the market in Australia this Christmas?
Leigh:
These have been identified by CHOICE and the retailers contacted, and the product taken off the market. The Product Safety Pledge has seen over 30,000 products taken off the market. But we also need consumers to be out there vigilant and making sure that they’re not only not buying dangerous products, but reporting them immediately.
Journalist:
How much are you relying on consumers to report these instances in order to take action?
Leigh:
Well, the principal work is being done by the competition and consumer regulators and we’ve seen that with tens of thousands of products they’ve managed to withdraw from sale. But if a product slips through, we want consumers to be fully aware of the risks of button batteries and quick to report these concerns to the regulator.
Journalist:
And can you give an indication of penalties that have been issued? And how high they’ve gone? I think it’s up to $50 million – have you issued any up to that level?
Leigh:
We haven’t had any $50 million penalties, but certainly raising that maximum does also raise the penalties that are deployed by courts and it sends a signal to courts that they can go up to $50 million and therefore they will tend to go high for bad behaviour. That’s as it should be. These products could kill children. We need to make absolutely sure that they’re not on the market.
Journalist:
What deception of consumers do you consider to be most common and most pernicious?
Leigh:
Well, we’ve got a range of problems that we’ve seen with product safety and the consumer ministers recently got together and also agreed to crack down on unfair trading practices. That will be reform that we will pursue in the new year and involve us cracking down on subscription traps and drip pricing. Subscription traps are when it’s harder to leave a subscription than it was to sign up for it. Drip pricing is when there’s additional mandatory per‑transaction fees that are hidden at the start and only disclosed at the end. Supporting consumers is an ongoing job. We’re up for that task and we’ve continued to push through important consumer reforms each year we’ve been in office.
Journalist:
And reforms on those things won’t happen until after Christmas?
Leigh:
We’ll be consulting and bringing in legislation next year on subscription traps and drip pricing. We’re prioritising consumer guarantees and product safety with states and territories. We are keen to strengthen the laws and also to ensure that the regulator has the teeth it needs to enforce the existing laws.
Journalist:
You mentioned the store‑wide climb, the great 50 per cent off store wide or the like. What power is the consumer got if they go in and find that’s nonsense. What can you do?
Leigh:
You can report it to the ACCC or to your state or territory consumer regulator – typically the Office of Fair Trading. Those offices are constantly following up on investigations. They have their own teams out on the ground, but they also respond to consumer reports. We’ve additionally provided more powers for some of the peak consumer groups to make designated complaints. So, where they see patterns of suspicious conduct often reported to them by members, they’re able to bundle them up together and report one designated complaint to the ACCC each year. And that’s another way that we’re backing consumers.
Journalist:
Do you know why Anika Wells’ trip to the United Nations was so expensive?
Leigh:
Minister Wells as I understand has answered all the questions around this and her travel complied with the guidelines.
Journalist:
Would you have taken that trip if you knew that it was going to cost almost $100,000?
Leigh:
Minister Wells has answered the questions and her trip complies with the guidelines.
Journalist:
Do you think that politicians need to, I guess, take a deeper look or, triple‑check the cost of things such as flights, particularly given rising debt and agencies having to cut back on costs to find financial savings?
Leigh:
I think ministers are always careful in terms of how they make those decisions. As Minister Wells has said, her travel complied with the guidelines.
Journalist:
And just on the Blayney gold mine, is the federal government trying to hide information by seeking a suppression order on key evidence?
Leigh:
I’ll have to leave that one to the relevant minister. Any other questions? Thanks very much for coming out.