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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-12-03 Daily Xml
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EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (14:51): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Consumer Affairs a question about educational software sold door to door.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: Have you written to her about it?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Actually she wrote to me, which is how I found out about it. For some time educational software has been available to assist children and their parents with important subjects like maths and English on their home computer. As most, if not all, parents are willing to make sacrifices for their children's education, businesses have found a market selling educational software packages door to door, along with almost everybody else. Will the minister advise the council about the pitfalls that can be encountered when parents purchase educational software items for their children from door to door salespeople?

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) (14:51): I thank the honourable member for his most important question and the opportunity to speak on this issue, about which concerns have been raised with my office. As Minister for Consumer Affairs I have come to realise the importance consumer education has in preventing bad outcomes for consumers. Many consumer disputes or problems could have been avoided if consumers were more aware of their rights and spent more time thinking about their real need for a product or services they are being urged to purchase. People can be very vulnerable to the pressure of salespeople.

As the member rightly stated in his question, parents want the best for their children and want to help them reach their full potential and are willing to make a financial sacrifice to achieve that worthwhile goal. Parents who want only the best for their children can be particularly vulnerable to purchasing educational software programs which they later can regret, often at a substantial cost. I am advised that some parents have reported their experience with educational software to the Office of Consumer and Business Affairs. The sellers of educational software typically use door-to-door selling practices and, more often than not, a degree of high pressure sales tactics is used.

As members would know, there are protections for consumers under the Fair Trading Act with regard to door-to-door selling. In recognition of the need to guard the most vulnerable in our community from high pressure sales techniques in particular, a contract to which the door-to-door trading provisions of the Fair Trading Act applies must allow for a 10-day cooling off period, with the consumer being notified of such in writing, and the trader cannot accept any money until after the end of the 10-day cooling off period. Unfortunately many parents are only discovering well after the 10-day cooling-off period has expired—and some are not being offered it—that the educational software package is not a great boon to their child's education or what they hoped for.

Parents need to look at these educational software packages a lot more closely to try to determine whether they are really getting value for their money. I have been advised that the packages can cost up to $12,000 and are usually financed through high interest finance plans. If a child loses interest or finds the product too difficult or too easy, as the case may be, parents can be paying off finance for a product that they do not use for the remainder of that contract period, which can be up to five years, so it can be a real financial bind.

Consumers need to remember that unless the sellers have misrepresented their product or have breached the door-to-door selling provisions of the act, such as the 10-day cooling off period, there may be little recourse available for them. That is why I am urging parents, who have the right intentions and obviously their children's future at heart, to stop and think before purchasing educational software for their children.

While companies sell these products all year round, this time of year is when school reports come home and parents might be less than impressed with their children's report cards and could perhaps be more easily convinced to make decisions that they can later come to regret and ill afford. Parents need to remember that the salespeople pushing the products may not have educational qualifications and are usually working on commission, as this is the normal practice for door-to-door selling.

Parents need to make sure that the educational software—be it English, maths or whatever—aligns with the school curriculum. If it does not, the product may be of questionable benefit to the child's education. I also suggest that parents talk to their school or the education department to discuss whether, for instance, their child might need extra assistance in the first place and also to discuss other options to assist their children's education. After all, given the cost of these educational software packages, the hiring of a private tutor may be a much better and cheaper option for a child needing support with their studies, and more tailored to their needs.

If parents have signed a contract and they have some doubts about it or do not understand, I advise them to seek legal advice. The Legal Services Commission can provide advice to parents contemplating a contract of this type. OCBA provides regular advice to consumers through its website, publications and regular appearances on radio programs, and it also has a telephone service. I recommend that consumers read OCBA's publication entitled The Smart Consumer to get some tips and hints to becoming a wise consumer who does not rush into major purchases or contracts. This information and publication is freely available as a booklet or a download from the OCBA website. As we head into the summer recess, I urge members to assist in raising this issue with parents who are looking for ways to help their children with their education; $12,000 is a lot of money for anybody, especially parents with school age children. I urge parents to stop and think and ask questions before committing themselves to an expensive and potentially useless educational software package.

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