"Do Not Call" Register Bill introduced

The Minister for Communications, Senator Coonan, has introduced the Do Not Call legislation into Commonwealth Parliament.

The Do Not Call Register Bill 2006 and the Do Not Call Register (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2006 provide a framework to establish a Register that would allow individuals to opt-out from receiving unsolicited telemarketing calls.

The Bill requires the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to establish and oversee a Do Not Call Register and prohibits telemarketers from calling a number which has been included on the Register.

The Register will be limited to individuals: the Government has decided not to include small businesses on the Register.

Individuals will not be charged to put their number on the Register. The Australian Government will contribute more than $17 million towards the cost of establishing the Register, with the telemarketing industry contributing $15.9 million over four years.

Exemptions will be provided for certain types of telemarketing calls such as calls from charities, registered political parties, independent Members of Parliament and candidates, religious organisations, educational institutions (where the call is made to a student or alumni) and government bodies.

ACMA will be responsible for the enforcement of the legislation and a range of penalties will be available depending on the nature of the breach. ACMA will be able to issue formal warnings or infringement notices or commence court proceedings. The Courts will be able to impose fines ranging from $1,100 to $1.1 million.

It is intended that ACMA commence with implementation of the Register as early as possible in 2007.

You can download the Bills and Explanatory Memoranda from the Parliament website.

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Mandatory Comparison Rates Review Research

Mandatory Comparison Rates Review Research

Even though the sunset date for publishing mandatory comparison rates has been extended to 1 July 2007, the research into whether MCR should be retained, continues.

Swinburne University, on behalf of the Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria, has finished a research project into the effectiveness of mandatory comparison rates in guiding consumer choices (The Final Report is "The Effectiveness of Mandatory Comparison Rates: Information, capacity and choice"). The results of the research will feed into the national review of comparison rates that is being undertaken by Hawkless Consulting (see their Preliminary Report (pdf)).

The results of Swinburne's preliminary research consisted of a literature review (First Issues Paper) and the results of the consumer survey (Consumer Research Issues Paper).

Swinburne's final report says their research suggests that there are three broad approaches available to regulators for improving information provision to consumers of credit:

• Setting out broad parameters for suppliers in terms of what information is to supplied and relying largely on industry self-regulation;
• More prescriptive approach with more detail requiring information to be provided as an attempt to make comparison easier (this is where the MCR regime would fit);
• Direct collection and provision of information in a comparable form. This is the approach adopted, for example, by the Financial Services Authority in the UK in developing an online mortgage comparator.

But they have not made a recommendation:

"Ensuring that consumers negotiating complex markets have access to comprehensible and comprehensive information is an endemic issue for public policy. Whether the MCR is retained or not, the issue will remain. In this review we have found that the MCR is a useful tool for consumers and have made some pragmatic suggestions for improving its usefulness, as well as pointing to the need for more research on how consumers go about information search and, in particular, testing different approaches to information provision with consumers."

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Consumer Credit Code amendment passed

The Consumer Credit and Trade Measurement Amendment Act 2006 was passed by Queensland Parliament on 21 April 2006. The Act includes amendments to the Uniform Consumer Credit Code to provide for e-commerce and for the extension of the sunset date of mandatory comparison rates to 1 July 2007.

The e-commerce amendments will commence on proclamation, which is likely to occur in early July 2006. The extension to the comparison rates sunset clause took effect on 2 May (when the Bill was assented to).

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