PRICE AND SAFETY COMPLIANCE

In reply to Mr PISONI (Unley) (23 October 2006) (Estimates Committee A).

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Volunteers, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister Assisting in Early Childhood Development): I have received the following advice:

1. I can confirm that the figure is correct.

2. There has been an operational change in the Trade Measurement section where a greater focus has been placed on testing products at the wholesale rather than the retail stage. This has allowed a much greater number of products and measures to be tested overall.

3. OCBA does not keep specific statistics on repeat offenders. Last year there was an overall compliance rate of 93 per cent for product labelling and correct measures. Where a product or a measuring instrument does not comply a compliance notice is issued immediately. This requires the items wrongly labelled to be withdrawn from sale, or the measuring instrument to be withdrawn from use immediately and not returned to use until the problem is corrected. 616 compliance notices were issued in 2005-06. If the business fails to make the correction a warning letter is the next step. Nine such letters were written last year. If a warning letter is ignored, OCBA will then prosecute the business. Last year there was one prosecution for the sale of underweight firewood.

It was thought the estimated result of 2005-06 would be unlikely to be repeated in 2006-07 as activity levels return to slightly above normal after concentrated effort in 2005-06.