PRODUCT SAFETY

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (15:15): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Consumer Affairs a question about product safety.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Under the Trade Standards Act 1979, persons in the course of a trade or business cannot manufacture or supply goods that do not comply with an applicable safety standard, or supply goods in contravention of an applicable safety standard. The Minister for Consumer Affairs authorises standards officers under the act to monitor, inspect and test products to ensure that they comply with applicable safety standards. Will the minister advise the chamber about the recent product safety monitoring and product safety testing by the Office of Consumer and Business Affairs, particularly in the lead up to our gift-giving season?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Energy) (15:15): I thank the honourable member for his important question on the activity undertaken by the Office of Consumer and Business Affairs (OCBA). As members may recall, OCBA conducts compliance activities each year, and one of those activities involves the lead up to Christmas to ensure that products offered for sale are safe, particularly for our children. This year OCBA's main focus was on toys for children, particularly those for children under the age of three, along with pedal bicycles and flotation devices.

Product safety officers inspected about 445 products in a total of 80 stores spread throughout metropolitan and country South Australia—about four times the number of stores visited at this time last year. The 80 stores were mostly department and discount variety-type stores, and they were inspected over a roughly three-week period up to 18 November 2009. The officers identified 83 products worthy of closer scrutiny, and I can report that, disappointingly, 21 of those products failed the mandatory safety requirements. This is an increase on last year's pre-Christmas product inspections, when 16 products failed the mandatory safety requirements; however, the increase is explainable by the fourfold increase in the number of stores visited this year, which I mentioned.

Of the 21 unsafe products detected, nine were children's toys which had small parts that were released when subjected to the drop test. As members would realise, young children are prone to putting objects in their mouths, and small parts that come loose can present an unacceptable ingestion and choking hazard. The remaining unsafe products included:

a toy bow and arrow set that had protective end caps which were able to be removed, making the toy far more likely to cause injury, especially to unprotected eyes;

three children's folding chairs which were found to have potentially hazardous finger-trapping spaces when folding or unfolding the chair; they did not have the mandatory gap between those folding parts which is, I think, about four millimetres;

one child's flotation swimsuit did not have the mandatory labelling requirements; and

one baby pacifier had a shield which was too small, making the dummy an ingestion or choking hazard.

The sale of even one unsafe product is unacceptable, especially when the products are toys marketed to children. All traders who were found to be selling unsafe products were requested to immediately remove them from sale, and inspectors will monitor those businesses to ensure that this happens. This will be done without giving notice of the inspector's visit to these businesses. Traders found to be selling unsafe products have been given warning letters, or expiation fines have been issued. Further non-compliance could result in penalties of up to $10,000 being imposed on sellers of unsafe products, so they are being put on notice.

Many of the products found to be unsafe are cheap, mass-produced goods and most found this year were, unfortunately, made in China. However, just because a product is cheap does not mean that consumers are not entitled to the full protection afforded by the Trade Standards Act. The sellers, distributors and manufacturers of the products have a duty and a legal obligation to ensure that the products they offer for sale meet the mandatory safety requirements. They have been put on notice that those who fail to do so will be caught and will pay the penalty. While some of those children's toys sold at Christmas may be cheap, the life of a child most certainly is not, and this government will continue to act to maintain the rigorous standards required to ensure that the public is protected from unsafe products.