Consumer bill delay concern

Press, 6 August 1983, Page 14

Consumer bill delay concern

PA Wellington The Consumer Council has told Parliament that it was disappointed that the Government’s Competition Bill was not introduced last year. It said the planned bill, which the National Party caucus decided to substantially rewrite, had contained a “much-needed revision of outdated and in some cases ineffectual consumer legislation.” The council’s annual re-

port, tabled in the House, added that it was “high time New Zealand obtained parity with the rest of the developed world.”

It said that when a revamped bill was introduced this year it should include: ® Strong new measures to stimulate efficiency, competitiveness, and entrepreneurial energy by New Zealand firms; @ A banning of collective price-fixing and other restrictive practices by profes-

sions; ® Controls (by way of restraining orders) on a “fringe element” of firms which “continue to deceive customers no matter how much publicity is given to their practices”; ® Effective product safety legislation to back up the “good work that is already being done by the Product Safety Council.” (The council wants safety standards to be declared compulsory and make it

possible to order recalls of unsafe products where a voluntary recall is refused); © New measures to control unreasonable selling practices; and G Updated legislation on misleading advertising, labelling, and packaging. The council said that as New Zealand develops its closer economic relationship with Australia, the trade practices legislation of the two countries will need to be harmonised.