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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-06-21 Daily Xml
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CONSUMER PROTECTION

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (15:14): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Consumer Affairs a question about protecting children from unsafe products in the marketplace.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The Office of Consumer and Business Affairs oversees the protection of consumers by ensuring compliance with relevant laws, by monitoring business activities that affect consumers and investigating practices that may adversely affect the interests of consumers generally or a particular class of consumers. Minister, will you advise the chamber of any recent investigations by Consumer and Business Affairs into unsafe products in the marketplace?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Public Sector Management, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for Gambling) (15:14): I thank the honourable member for his important question. Earlier this year, Consumer and Business Affairs initiated a wide-scale product safety monitoring program. The program focused on the national mandatory safety standard for projectile toys and the permanent ban on undeclared knives or cutters in art, craft or stationery sets.

With the implementation of the Australian Consumer Law on 1 January 2011, these two regulations are now enforced by CBA's product safety unit. I am advised that CBA staff in Adelaide, together with staff from regional offices, inspected a variety of stores in Whyalla, Port Pirie, Port Augusta, Renmark, Berri, Mount Gambier and also throughout the metropolitan area. A total of 57 stores and 113 products were inspected to ensure goods complied with the safety regulations.

Children's projectile toys are products which are designed or clearly intended for use in play by children and which are capable of launching small parts. Projectile toys come in a variety of forms. Things like, obviously, dart sets, bow and arrow sets and guns are some of the most popular. A total of 33 projectile toys were examined and I am very pleased to advise that they were all found to be compliant with the mandatory safety standard requirements.

These include those projectiles having things like suction-capped tips. The tip must not be small enough to fit into the small parts test cylinder, which is the size of, if you like, the windpipe of a young child under the age of three. The products must display prominent safety warning labels on packaging. The mandatory safety standard is enforced to protect children, obviously, from choking on different parts of the projectiles, such as darts.

I am also advised that the CBA inspectors carried out checks on 80 art, craft and stationery sets to ensure that none contained undeclared knives or cutters. On 1 February 2011, a ban covering these items was converted from an interim ban to a permanent ban. The ban ensures that adults who purchase art, craft or stationery sets for children are alerted to the presence of knives or cutters. It also prevents these arts and craft toys from being unknowingly given to children who might be too young to use these implements safely.

The declaration of the presence of a knife or cutter must be easily legible and prominently displayed on the package. I am very pleased to advise that all sets inspected by the CBA officers complied with the ban. Traders found supplying goods which do not meet mandatory safety standards or which are subject to a ban may face penalties of up to $1.1 million for bodies corporate or $220,000 for an individual.

Offences may also be expiated with a fine of $1,200 applying to each offence. Although the results of these investigations were obviously very pleasing, I can assure you that CBA are committed to continuing the monitoring of product safety in South Australia as part of their commitment to protecting South Australian consumers from unsafe goods and unsafe product-related services.

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