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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-05-14 Daily Xml
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Question Time

ITINERANT TRADERS

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN (14:52): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Consumer Affairs a question about itinerant traders.

Leave granted.

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN: There are laws that regulate door-to-door trading. These laws are designed to protect people, especially vulnerable members of the community, from fly-by-night door-to-door traders. Will the minister advise the council about a recent example of fly-by-night door-to-door traders where vulnerable members of the South Australian community have been targeted?

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) (14:53): In South Australia, the Fair Trading Act 1987 contains provisions that relate to the practice of door-to-door selling of goods and services. The door-to-door provisions of the act provide protection for people who are vulnerable to high pressure sales techniques, who are put on the spot and make rash decisions to purchase goods and services that often they find they do not really want nor can afford. People sometimes enter into a door-to-door sales contract on the spur of the moment without giving any thought to whether they really want or need the goods or without having shopped around to compare alternatives and value for money.

Consumers who purchase goods or services as the result of door-to-door sales transactions are legally entitled to a cooling off period if the goods or services cost more than $50. Door-to-door sellers are required to give prescribed forms to the consumer: one being a form that explains their cooling off rights and the other a form that they can use to cool off. A written contract has to be signed by the consumer and the contract must clearly state that the contract is subject to a 10 day cooling off period.

Door-to-door sellers are not allowed to accept consideration of any sort from the consumer or supply any service until the expiration of the cooling off period. Unfortunately, there are groups of itinerant traders who travel around the place, moving from one jurisdiction to the next, who target vulnerable people and who, while in our state, blatantly breach the door-to-door sales provisions of the act. The Office of Consumer and Business Affairs regularly receives complaints about these types of traders. The main type of itinerant traders reported to OCBA include painters, bitumen layers and people driving around selling electrical goods (the most recent case involved speakers and televisions being sold from the back of vans).

About two weeks ago a group of itinerant painters knocked at the door of two houses in the western suburbs, one of which belonged to an elderly person. Within hours of each other the two people involved agreed to have the roofs of their homes painted. Both jobs were completed extremely quickly and were substandard; in fact, I understand that one of the jobs was completed in something like half an hour. One of the customers paid $5,000 and the other paid $2,500 for similar work. One of the customers was even driven to the bank by the painters to withdraw the cash. The customers did not receive any documentation whatsoever from the painters, and it is doubtful the painters used their real names. I am advised that virtually every part of the painters' conduct breached the provisions of the act, as I just explained.

By the very nature of their conduct itinerant traders are hard to catch. They use aliases and do not provide documentation and, by the time someone works out that they have been had, it is often too late to do anything about it. The itinerant trader has moved on and there is no documentation that would help lead us back to them. While OCBA and I regularly issue media releases warning about itinerant traders and consumer rights in respect of door-to-door sales, and while OCBA has literature available regarding consumer rights in respect of door-to-door sales, unfortunately this information is often picked up by people only after they have been taken for a ride, after the itinerant traders have taken their hard-earned money and done a runner.

The only way to stop itinerant traders taking advantage of vulnerable people by breaching the door-to-door sales provisions of the act is for people to be well aware of their rights, and I encourage all members of parliament to be alert to the practice of itinerant traders. If a member hears of any examples of itinerant traders operating in their patch, I encourage the member to telephone the Office of Consumer and Business Affairs to report it. Members' offices are often contacted by constituents stating that they have someone at their door offering to paint a roof or something similar, and I encourage them to inform such constituents of their rights.

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