CONSUMER PROTECTION

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (15:02): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Consumer Affairs a question about dubious salesmen.

Leave granted.

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: This week the minister told us about the efforts of the Office of Consumer and Business Affairs to ensure that consumers get what they pay for and that retailers are doing the right thing. However, OCBA has another important role: keeping the public informed about dodgy sellers. Can the minister provide members with information which our constituents need to be aware of?

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 for the City of Adelaide) (15:02): I thank the honourable member for her important question. The Office of Consumer and Business Affairs (OCBA) does indeed play a very important role in keeping South Australians informed, and I would like to put on record that South Australians need to watch out for a suspicious crew of fairly dubious salesmen offering cheap electrical goods from—would you believe it—the back of a black van, a Hyundai van, in fact.

OCBA has received reports of two men setting up shop selling cheap TVs, projectors and sound systems from the back of this black van, which carries Queensland registration plates. These operators are mobile and could turn up anywhere around Adelaide, so consumers are urged to be on their guard and report sightings to OCBA as soon as possible. This will be of enormous help to OCBA in stopping their antics.

I understand the salesmen work in groups of two or three to find suitable targets, and drive a minivan or sometimes a commercial vehicle displaying a company logo. The van operators set up their con in moderately trafficked areas such as car parks, shopping centres and petrol forecourts, and I am advised that these dodgy operators have so far been plying their trade in Queenstown and Mile End retail car parks, approaching shoppers and attempting to sell them what they purport are cut-price electrical goods. They use the line that the goods are surplus stock which has been over-ordered by mistake and they are therefore selling them off at a fraction of the usual price.

I am advised that distributors rent a warehouse and obtain licences and distribution rights, and then import large quantities of what are often very cheap and poorly made goods. They ship these goods to local warehouses in major cities and hire salesmen to then distribute the shoddy goods locally.

The salesmen are on our streets and back in business, and these people appear to be operating in breach of door-to-door sales provisions set out in the Fair Trading Act 1987. The law is an important protection for both consumers and reputable traders, giving a 10 day cooling-off period, which means that the trader must not provide any goods or services or accept payment until the cooling-off period expires. Obviously, these distributors are in breach of that provision.

Door-to-door trading is defined under legislation as 'the practice under which a person goes from place to place to sell goods'. Again, I encourage members to be vigilant and remind members of the public that if they are approached to contact the Office of Consumer and Business Affairs straightaway.

Obviously, these are often very poor quality goods and often people are paying prices that are much higher than the goods are actually worth in reality. When those goods break down, the opportunity for someone to pursue their warranty entitlements is obviously quite limited when the trader is not able to be contacted. So, people are often left out of pocket and very disappointed with the goods they have purchased.