HOST:
The Federal Government has launched an inquiry into smart phone apps and is urging the public to name and shame dodgy app vendors. Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury joins us now, thanks very much for being with us.
BRADBURY:
Good afternoon Louise, good to be with you.
HOST:
Why have you instituted an inquiry? Has the government been hit with a lot of complaints about apps?
BRADBURY:
I'm certainly aware that for a large number of consumers this has been a source of some frustration. I can say personally that I've had some experience with it myself and I know many others have as well. I think that there are a range of issues that this raises and we felt that it was important to refer this matter to my principal advisory committee, which is the Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council, just to have a really good look at, firstly, what are the issues of consumer detriment that can potentially arise here, but also to what extent is the community properly educated so that people understand their rights and the ways these things work. There's a real focus, in particular, on these in-app purchases. This is the notion that you can download an app that's either free or very cheap and then as a result of downloading that app, in order to maintain your content over time there'll be a series of downloads, sometimes automatic downloads of content, that may in fact cost you money over time.
HOST:
And I know parents have been caught out with this with their children having free apps and their parents not realising that they're actually purchasing things or hitting buttons that end up costing parents a great deal of money. How have you been caught out?
BRADBURY:
That's pretty much the way it happened, and I have to say I have four young children. We do monitor closely the things that they do on the iPad, in particular; that's where we had our experience.
HOST:
So it was that sort of thing was it, a children's game?
BRADBURY:
It was, and look, I think the thing here is you can put parental controls in place. That's something in our case we learned the hard way. I think for a lot of people just having the information available to them about how they might safeguard against these problems is a very useful exercise in its own right.
HOST:
Are you suggesting there should be more regulation of apps?
BRADBURY:
No, at this stage we really want the advisory council to have a good look at the issue, for consumers to come forward and share their experiences in relation to particular apps and the in-app purchases that have caught them out, because we think that's a useful exercise. It's not an easy area to regulate to begin with and we do recognise that there's always an important and central role for parental supervision but we want to get to the bottom of where is the potential harm here, what can be done, if anything, and how much of that requires regulation, or is it in fact that there should be a focus on education in order to make sure that people are aware of their rights and how these things operate.
HOST:
There are apparently millions of apps in the world, so how could you ever regulate them?
BRADBURY:
I think that's the challenge. There are ways, if you wanted to, that you could seek to regulate the way in which providers make them available. Obviously there are a large number of apps but the platforms from which you are able to download the apps, there are a much more limited number of entities there. There are ways you could do these things, but I never approach these things from the point of saying we are going to introduce a new law or a new regulation because you really need to look at, well what is the harm and what are the options available. Sometimes you can achieve a lot more with more targeted education and we hope that at least through this process there'll be a little more focus on the practices that have been catching people out. If you're in the situation that we found ourselves in, and it wasn't a large amount of money involved, but it's better to learn from the mistakes of others than to learn yourself. I think that's part of the process.
HOST:
Right, and just before you go, I'll put the same question to you that I put to Katy Gallagher. It's about an interview coming up soon on the Drive show with Professor Adam Graycar from ANU. He's just released the findings of a survey into people's perception of government and corruption in government and the survey says, among other things, that one in three people believe the Federal government is corrupt; only one in five believe governments can usually be trusted to do the right thing and a quarter of people surveyed want to see better government. Again, politicians have never really been held in high repute in Australia but it looks like it's getting much worse.
BRADBURY:
Well it's hardly an injection into your self-esteem, I must say, when you hear things like that. I recognise that from time to time people will have frustrations with government generally. I think the great thing about our system of government is that, and I say this to people regularly in my own constituency, that if people have ideas about how things can be done better, then the great thing about democracy is that everyone's entitled to stick their hand up and have a go, and that's quite often what does happen. I do think it's very easy to sometimes judge others from afar but, as we all know, when you're in there making the decisions, it's never easy.
HOST:
Alright, we'll be pursuing this issue, I'll let you go David Bradbury, thanks for joining us.
BRADBURY:
No worries, good to talk to you Louise.