Legislative Council Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3) 51 3 Parliament of South Australia Legislative Council published Bills Statutes Amendment and Repeal (Trade Measurement) Bill STATUTES AMENDMENT AND REPEAL (TRADE MEASUREMENT) BILL Second Reading Second Reading Adjourned debate on second reading. (Continued from 23 September 2009. Page 3354.) The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS Legislative Council The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (19:49): I rise to speak on the bill and give the opposition's view. In April 2007, the Rann government signed a COAG agreement to move to a national system of weights and measures administration. The state government has advised us that the commonwealth government has always held the power under the Commonwealth Constitution to instigate weights and measures legislation and bureaucracy but has never utilised it to date. It is our understanding that approximately 13 state public servants are involved here, and there is a building and assets, including testing equipment and so on. We are told that they will be transferred to the commonwealth, so the building and assets will be transferred at no cost. Obviously, the question is: what are the assets worth? Why would we give up something when fair compensation should be paid? We are led to believe that the commonwealth will be constructing a new building in three years. At what cost? Will it be on the same site? Will it keep our building and assets? Have we given up significant state funds? We are led to believe that the commonwealth will not be charging for testing—which could be a good thing for businesses—but we are giving up control of the fees that would be charged to business. We are concerned that at the moment it may be a saving, but in the near future we would have no control over business paying higher fees. We are concerned about that. How long will the commonwealth keep its no-charge-for-test fee? Again, we have no control. Repairers, who are currently licensed with the state at a cost of $216 per annum, plus $91 for an application fee (which is a one-off) and a fee of $60 per person, will now be licensed by the commonwealth. Again, all of a sudden the cost and structure of the licence is unknown. We are handing over those cost structures to the commonwealth government and we will have no control over what fees small businesses will be paying, and that is a concern to us. We are told that the estimated saving to state government will be around $320,000 per annum. Lost revenue will be $560,000, but saved expenditure will be about $880,000. This sounds terrific but, again, we are giving up a building, and I want to know what it is worth and why we are doing it. The type of new inspection regime to be implemented by the federal government is unknown. It could be more or less severe. What level of penalties will apply? That is also unknown. It could be more or less severe. Any consumer affairs complaints will not be handled within our state jurisdiction but, rather, will go to the commonwealth, so we are not sure what service will be provided to businesses, and it will certainly be out of our hands. There is no indication at this point about whether or not the commonwealth will have a complaints office in South Australia. We are very concerned about business in this state and what we are handing over, so at this point we cannot see our way clear to support the bill. Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins.