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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-15 Daily Xml
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Bitumen Contractors

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (14:43): My question is to the Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs. Can the minister advise what is being done to bring dodgy bitumen contractors who visited my electorate last month to justice?

Members interjecting:

Mr ELLIS: Bitumen, to be clear.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr ELLIS: With leave, I would like to explain a bit further, please, Mr Speaker.

Leave granted.

Mr ELLIS: Last month, farming businesses in my electorate were doorknocked by an interstate ute offering to perform work bitumenising their driveways. They had gone to great lengths to appear legitimate, but ultimately the work was dodgy or substandard. What is being done to pursue these offenders, considering that numberplates and phone numbers were provided to try to catch them?

The Hon. A. MICHAELS (Enfield—Minister for Small and Family Business, Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs, Minister for Arts) (14:43): I do want to thank the member for Narungga for the question. 'Bitumen bandits' is what they are commonly referred to as. They have been around for a long time. The difficulty, as the member highlighted, is actually catching them. Just for the house's benefit, these are generally itinerant workers roaming from suburb to suburb in metro Adelaide but also across the regions.

They are unlicensed, doorknocking homes and small businesses saying, 'We've got leftover bitumen and we can do a really cheap job for you to resurface a driveway,' or something like that. They are dodgy. The work, as the member highlighted, is often substandard and leaves consumers out of pocket. There are also very often high-pressure tactics to pay at the end of the job and pay more than was quoted, which is a cause of concern for particularly some of the more vulnerable constituents these people are attacking.

Unfortunately, we are hearing reports of these quite regularly. The last reports we heard were in late May. I go out publicly with the Commissioner for Consumer Affairs trying to make that publicly known to areas where they are hitting. The last reports were, just for the benefit of members, around the member for Narungga's electorate but also Stirling North, Mallala, Athelstone, Renmark, Murray Bridge, Ceduna, Dry Creek, Mile End, Melrose Park, North Plympton, St Mary's, and Lonsdale—in late May there were reports around there.

Once CBS receives a complaint, it goes to the compliance and enforcement branch for them to investigate. What we need is to find as much information as we can from people who are targeted so that we can try to identify these people and gather evidence. CBS works very closely with SAPOL and other enforcement areas across the country, including Border Force. Some of these people in the past have been deported.

As well as working with relevant authorities, CBS is just trying to make that public awareness so people know not to go accepting high-pressure tactics. The advice is to go and get multiple quotes, to check if people are licensed, and they can do that on the CBS website, to check that builders' licences actually exist. If anyone has any complaints or if anyone has seen these people, please report it as quickly as possible through to CBS. The quicker we get on top of that and start investigation, the more likely it is that we will be able to catch these people and at least be able to make the public aware that they are out there doing this in certain areas.

There are hefty penalties, of course, as there are breaches of the Building Work Contractors Act if they are caught. There are also breaches of Australian Consumer Law, which have quite substantial penalties, particularly around false and misleading representations and asserting a right for payment for unsolicited goods; they are the potential breaches that could be pursued. Penalties of up to $2.5 million for an individual or $50 million under ACL for corporations apply. There are a range of penalties.

CBS is, as I said, working with SAPOL, Border Force and various other agencies. It is a national problem, but we do see it come up quite regularly in South Australia, both in metro and now in regional areas as well. Again, please let us know when that happens so CBS can investigate as quickly as possible to try to stop these people from taking advantage and pursuing these scams.

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