Public Defender: Fair Trading Minister Stuart Ayres sets sights on name-and-shame register

FAIR Trading Minister Stuart Ayres is planning a name-and-shame register of the most-complained-about traders.

FAIR Trading Minister Stuart Ayres is planning a name-and-shame register of the most-complained-about traders.

The dual aims are to pressure rogues to do better and to make it easier for consumers to avoid those that don’t.

Mr Ayres, 33 — who became minister in December — told Public Defender yesterday he hoped to produce an “easily accessible list of traders who have demonstrated ... that they have a complaint history”.

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Details are yet to be finalised, but a regularly updated record of the 50 worst offenders could be a powerful weapon for Fair Trading Commissioner Rod Stowe and his team. They could confront traders rising through the complaints ranks and warn them to smarten up or be publicly pasted.

And consumers would have more “independence and transparency” than review websites, Mr Ayres said.

Mr Ayres also aims to give Fair Trading’s 80-strong compliance squad the right to seize suspect products for testing and destroy stock if it is found to be dangerous or dodgy, as Victorian authorities can.

Fair Trading Minister Stuart Ayres (centre) with fair trading compliance officers David Byrnes and Anne McManus.

And the Penrith MP wants Fair Trading to be able to compel traders to talk to Fair Trading or face fines. Counterparts in South Australia have such powers.

Mr Ayres said of these proposals: “We’ve started the work around what legislation we need to put a change in to allow Fair Trading to do its job more effectively.”

Mr Ayres admitted that, as a consumer, he had never had to fight for a refund.

However, he had been a victim of skimming. About five years ago, crooks got into his account and bought “four cases of grog, three cartons of cigarettes and hired a boat”.

“It was a fantastic fishing trip,” he said. He was compensated by the card issuer.

There is a personal experience that is informing his ministerial work — he and partner Marise Payne, the Liberal senator, built a home at Mulgoa.

“What we are proposing (in reforming the Home Building Act) is similar to the experience that I got around progress payments so that people understand exactly what they are paying for,” Mr Ayres said.

“My experience there has been quite useful.”

While Mr Ayres talks up big jumps in penalty notices and prosecutions, critics say Fair Trading has not been directing enough effort to mainstream matters, citing crackdowns on synthetic drugs and tattoo parlours.

Mr Ayres rejected such assessments, pointing to the strengthening of Fair Trading’s powers and reforms not only to home building but strata regulation.

“If we can get the home building and strata arrangements through (parliament) that will be in the top three reforms of the O’Farrell government in its first term. It’s a huge modernisation.”