Stephen Cenatiempo:
Dr Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury and the Member for Fenner and joins us now. Andrew, good morning.
Andrew Leigh:
Good morning, Stephen. Glad to be with you.
Cenatiempo:
The visit of President Herzog. I mean, it stands to reason that the Jewish community has welcomed the comfort that the President of Israel has brought them by coming out to mourn with them in the wake of the Bondi Terror Attack in December. Extraordinary, the opposition to this.
Leigh:
Well Stephen, you’re right. The focus of this visit really is on President Herzog being out here in order to console the Jewish community. It was a request from the Jewish community that he be invited out to Australia and the principal focus is on him being with those friends, relatives, family, the extended Jewish community who are mourning after Australia’s worst terrorist incident.
Cenatiempo:
He will meet with the Prime Minister. What are we expecting to come out of that meeting? Because the relationship between Israel and Australia has been strained in recent times. Will this go any way to fixing that?
Leigh:
Look, I think Australia has taken an approach which is common to other countries such as the UK, France, Germany in advocating a two‑state solution and advocating for that as a lasting solution to peace in the Middle East. But I imagine the focus is going to be very much on Bondi and its aftermath and what we can do together in order to deal with the scourge of antisemitism in Australia.
Cenatiempo:
I want to talk about something closer to your portfolio for a moment. And this is draft legislation that has been introduced to ban unfair fair trading practices, specifically with things like hidden transaction fees and subscription traps. Now this is something we’ve all been caught in, but most of the time I see it, it’s with an overseas operator. What control do you have over them? Because I mean within a, you know, and I imagine, well, maybe I’m putting words in your mouth here, but gymnasiums might be at the top of the list here?
Leigh:
These laws will apply to international operators as they’ll apply to domestic ones Stephen. It’s 2 big reforms. We’re cracking down subscription traps – which is where it’s harder to get out of a subscription than to get into it. And drip pricing, which is where the final price is very different from the one you’re advertised because there’s per transaction fees that are added on later on. These laws will apply to international operators as they do to domestic ones. That’s true of our existing laws. Many of our existing laws apply to these big online platforms just as they do to a local Canberra small business that’s selling through its website and it’ll be ensuring that Australians have better protections as they deal in the world in which many people are using subscriptions. Subscriptions can be great, but subscriptions are pretty frustrating when you can’t get out of them.
Cenatiempo:
Can I suggest an addition to this? And something that I’ve noticed more recently is you go onto a website and you might sign up for a subscription for a product to be delivered every month or every 3 months or whatever, but you’ve got to actually go and uncheck boxes for a whole bunch of other stuff that they’ve added to your cart without you asking for it?
Leigh:
Yeah. I mean, there are questions around deceptive practices within this unfair trading practices prohibition. So the unfair trading practices prohibition will strengthen the hand of the competition regulator in order to be able to deal with some of these kind of practices. Each of them will turn on their particular facts. But I understand what you’re saying, you shouldn’t be buying things that you haven’t signed up to buy.
Cenatiempo:
Yeah, and it happens time and time again. So is this something that will go before the parliament this week or are we just in the early stages here?
Leigh:
This is a short and sharp consultation on the specifics of legislation. We’ve consulted on the broad notions of unfair trading practices. Now we’ve got the draft legislation out for the consultation that wraps up on the 23rd of February.
Cenatiempo:
And how do people make submissions or have a look at the actual document?
Leigh:
Just go to the Treasury website; treasury.gov.au where it’s got the explanatory memorandum and the legislation there.
Cenatiempo:
Andrew, good to talk to you. We’ll catch up again in a couple of weeks.
Leigh:
Likewise, thanks Stephen.
Cenatiempo:
Dr Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury.