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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-06-18 Daily Xml
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CALL DIRECT

The Hon. R.D. LAWSON (15:15): My question is directed to the Minister for Consumer Affairs concerning consumer scams, and I seek leave to make an explanation before asking it.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.D. LAWSON: The minister issues sporadic media releases and responds to Dorothy dixer questions with assurances that unfair trade practices are being stamped out by her government. She condemns scams and rogue traders, as she calls them, and issues dire warnings. Her departmental website shows that the minister has 'a strategic focus on vulnerable and disadvantaged consumers'. Call Direct is a service operated by the South Australian government-owned SA Ambulance.

Call Direct is a personal emergency alarm monitoring service with which members would be familiar. It is an extremely good service. It is not, however, a cheap service. According to the schedule of fees, the annual rental fee amounts to $554.40 on the commencement of the agreement, $417 for purchasing a unit and an annual monitoring payment of $356. The service acknowledges in the annual report of SA Ambulance its unique nature. It says that it has some 4,000 Call Direct members. The annual report states:

Due to the nature of the Call Direct service and the fact that some clients only require the service for a short period, member numbers vary throughout the year.

SA Ambulance is acknowledging the fact that members occasionally will have to go into care and some, of course, will die. I was recently contacted by a constituent whose relative was a subscriber to Call Direct. She was in good health. She paid her annual fee in advance but, shortly after the new term commenced, she passed away.

Call Direct refused to refund any part of the unexpired term, pointing to the fine print in its contract. This was a windfall gain to the service and by no means a genuine estimate of the loss which had to be suffered in consequence of the termination. My questions to the minister are:

1. Does she believe that Call Direct clients are vulnerable and disadvantaged and entitled to proper consumer protection?

2. Will she encourage SA Ambulance to introduce a fair refund policy in the case of early involuntary termination of the service?

3. In any event, will she demand that the consumer information given to clients and potential clients of Call Direct contain a prominent warning of the extortionate refund policy being operated by this government agency?

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) (15:19): I thank the honourable member for his important questions. The honourable member is quite right that the scammers are always looking for opportunities to exploit vulnerable people. Just when we think we have got one area cleaned up, these dishonest scoundrels seem to find another opening somewhere else. It is something about which our office remains vigilant, and that is why we have an ongoing monitoring system throughout the year that looks at a range of areas in terms of scrutinising and monitoring different activities which I outlined yesterday.

I will not waste the time of this chamber going through those things again. Part of it is about providing advice and warnings to the public in relation to various scams and get rich quick schemes, such as illegal pyramid schemes. Warnings are usually published by a media release with information on specific schemes, through the consumer affairs' telephone advisory service, the internet site, and booklets that are circulated. Quite a considerable amount of resources are dedicated to ongoing monitoring and the following up of those scammers.

In relation to the specific issue that the honourable member asked about today, to the best of my knowledge I am not aware of any complaints I have received in relation to Call Direct, but I am happy to have the information that he has provided today followed up in order to ensure that nothing untoward is occurring.

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