WA Treasurer slams Federal Government over unfair contract laws

West Australia treasurer Troy Buswell has told minister for small business Craig Emerson that the Federal Government is ignoring the states and making bad decisions in regard to changes to business-to-business transactions.

According to a report in the Australian Financial Review, Buswell said in a letter to Emerson that the Federal Government should have consulted with the states before removing business-to-business transactions from new laws outlawing unfair contract terms.

Buswell said it was “of grave concern” that there was no consultation, and said it should have been unanimously agreed upon.

“While I continue to support development of a uniform Australian consumer law, I have concerns about the approach adopted by the Commonwealth in unilaterally changing the unfair contract term provisions, and about the diminished protections available to business resulting from the changes.”

“Insufficient explanation has been provided as the Commonwealth’s reasons for excluding business-to-business transactions from the scope of the unfair contract provisions.”

The “unfair contract” terms legislation, which will replace each state’s own laws, seek to protect consumers from unfair terms such as unfair exit fees, penalty fees and “unfair” clauses that permit one party to change or cancel the contract

Emerson introduced the legislation to parliament in June, but the bill only covered business-to-consumer contracts, despite earlier drafts of the bill showing provisions for business-to-business transactions.

Council of Small Business of Australia chief executive Jaye Radisich says she will be meting with Buswell to discuss his concerns, and reaffirmed COSBOA’s position that the Government should introduce provisions for business-to-business contracts.

“I think there are many more discussions that need to be had about this issue to find the best way forward for both the states, and the Federal Government. I’ll be meeting with treasurer Buswell soon and we’ll talk about his concerns and about what he is looking for in the legislation.”

“This is clearly an ongoing issue. We made our concerns about this known awhile ago, and we have expressed to Emerson that we would like to see business-to-business transactions dealt with in some way. We think it would be good to have that included in the consumer legislation.”