Ash Ambihaipahar (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Bill 2026. At its core, this particular bill is about making our payment systems and our marketplaces fairer for everyday Australians. It's about making sure people can buy what they need without being misled, trapped, pressured or ripped off.

In Barton, when I think about trust in the marketplace, I think about our grandparents. We all have stereotypes of our grandparents—maybe it's Nonna and her insistence on stuffing you full of plates of pasta and homemade salami, or Papou, who's insisting you go check the lamb on the spit that's been there since six in the morning; or maybe it's Nainai, who's using Tiger Balm to treat everything; or maybe it's your Ammappa, who might actually warn you about eating too much durian, because it's a heaty food.

One thing that unites these grandparents, even if they live in different suburbs, speak different languages or adhere to different religions or cultures, is that they all insist on paying in cash. Cash is king. Cash is something people understand. It's simple. It's physical. You hand it over in person. You look someone in the eye before you part with your money, and, if someone is ripping you off, Nonna knows. More than that, our grandparents often knew the person they were buying from. They shopped on their local high street, where stores were owned and run by the person you sat next to at church, the person who coached your kid's soccer team or the person who lived across the road. If someone was going to rip you off, chances were you knew about it already. The gossip mill had already armed you well to take on the local grifter.

Now, I know this might sound like a little bit of a nostalgic trip here, but the local marketplace, built on closeness and trust, is becoming less common. Modern families are not always engaging with their high streets in the same way. Life is busy. Shopping online is often quicker, easier and more efficient. When we move from the local high street to the virtual high street, we lose some of those old protections. We lose the closeness. We lose the personal relationship. We lose the ability to judge a business by the way it treats people in our community.

These new, virtual high streets are often not grounded in trust or community. Sometimes they are faceless, shady storefronts that just happen to be selling the exact product or service you need. Sometimes they're a huge multinational company whose only face is a logo. Either way, it's much harder for an everyday consumer to know who they are dealing with when the whole interaction happens behind a screen. When you are trying to buy something quickly—when you're rushing between work, school pick-up, dinner and everything else—how are you meant to actually know whether the site is trustworthy? Many of these virtual storefronts build their business models around the absence of trust. They use traps. They use algorithms. They design systems to extract as much money from a buyer as possible. They do not care about the quality of service. They do not care about the product. They do not care about the person on the other end of the transaction. It is a profit model.

But that's not the whole story, because there are so many small businesses on our local high streets that have built an online presence. There are so many of them in my electorate of Barton. I think of Self Raised in Carlton and Bexley North, Greek Cargo in Earlwood and LA Donuts—Frida, you're a genius!—operating in Beverly Hills. I can say that these businesses are not engaging in traps used by nameless, faceless online businesses. They're using online tools to reach more customers, support their staff and keep their bricks-and-mortar stores alive. They're still trying to provide the best quality local service they can. They are still part of our neighbourhoods. They still know their customers. They still care about their reputation, because their reputation is built right here in our community. Without them, our local jobs and our local character will suffer. It would not be the Barton our grandparents grew up in and would not be the Barton we want to pass on.

So, yes, this bill is about stronger consumer protections, but it's also something much bigger. It's about rewarding the good local businesses that do the right thing. It's about standing up to the unfair practices that punish consumers and undercut honest businesses. And it's about keeping alive the neighbourhoods our grandparents built and the neighbourhoods we still want to live in today.

One of the central features of this legislation is the creation of a new economy-wide safeguard against unfair business conduct. At its heart, this reform recognises a very simple principle: Australians should be able to make purchasing decisions freely, transparently and without being manipulated through unfair tactics. This bill introduces a flexible, overarching standard that prevents businesses from engaging in conduct that unfairly influences or pressures consumers in ways that are likely to result in harm. It acknowledges that, while businesses are entitled to market their products and compete strongly, there must be clear limits on practices that intentionally exploit confusion, vulnerability or imbalance in information.

This legislation is not designed to stop ordinary advertising or legitimate sales strategies. Businesses will continue to innovate, compete and promote their services. Healthy competition remains a critical part of a strong economy. However, there's a clear distinction between persuasive marketing and conduct that deliberately steers consumers into decisions they might not otherwise make through pressure, obstruction or deception. Increasingly, consumers interact with businesses through digital platforms and online interfaces that are carefully designed to shape behaviour. While many businesses use these tools responsibly, some practices are specifically engineered to frustrate the cancellation process, overwhelm consumers with excessive information, conceal important details or create urgency that pressures individuals into rushed decisions. This bill seeks to address those harmful behaviours.

This bill also addresses the growing use of digital design features that create unreasonable pressure or deliberately obstruct consumers from making informed choices. These tactics can include complicated cancellation pathways, repeated prompts designed to completely wear consumers down or interfaces structured to discourage people from changing their minds. Importantly, this reform has been designed with the future in mind. Markets, technology and consumer behaviour continue to evolve rapidly, particularly in the digital economy.

A principles based framework allows the law to remain relevant as new forms of unfair conduct emerge, rather than relying on parliament to constantly and continuously amend legislation in response to every new tactic or technology. This approach creates a stronger and more adaptable consumer protection system while also giving businesses greater clarity about the standards expected of them. Ultimately, these changes are about strengthening confidence in the marketplace, supporting fair competition, and ensuring Australians can engage in the economy, knowing that they're being treated honestly and fairly.

Australians are increasingly relying on subscription based services in their daily lives, from streaming platforms and fitness apps to software services and delivery memberships. Subscription models have become deeply embedded in the modern economy, and many of these services provide genuine convenience and value to customers. However, there is growing concern about the way some businesses structure their arrangements to make cancellation very difficult and ongoing charges easy to overlook. Too often, consumers are drawn into arrangements through free trials or heavily promoted introductory offers, only to later discover that ending the subscription is unnecessarily complicated. In some cases, businesses rely on consumers forgetting renewal dates, missing important notices or becoming frustrated by confusing cancellation processes. And while signing up may take only moments, cancelling can involve navigating multiple web pages, repeated prompts, hidden settings or lengthy customer service interactions. That imbalance is precisely what this legislation seeks to address.

This bill introduces stronger safeguards to ensure subscription agreements are fair, transparent and easy for consumers to understand from the outset. Businesses will be required to provide clear and accessible information before a consumer enters a subscription arrangement, including details about pricing, billing frequency, renewal terms, the duration of any trial period and the steps required to cancel the service. The reforms also place significant emphasis on the cancellation process itself, and consumers should not face unreasonable barriers when trying to end a service they no longer wish to use. Businesses will need to ensure cancellation pathways are visible, practical and proportionate. If a person can subscribe online quickly and easily, there should be a similarly straightforward process to discontinue the arrangement.

In addition to these measures, further regulations approaching on 1 July 2027 will introduce a reminder requirement for businesses. Consumers will receive a clearer notification before free trials expire or before automatic renewals occur, and these reminders are intended to give individuals fair opportunity to reassess whether they still wish to continue with the service before getting the additional charge. These protections will extend beyond individual consumers to also cover small businesses who are entering into standard-form subscription contracts. This is an important inclusion because small businesses can face many of the same challenges as ordinary consumers, particularly when dealing with larger corporations and complex contractual systems. They too deserve transparency and fair treatment. Importantly, these reforms also support businesses that are already doing the right thing. Many companies already communicate clearly with customers, provide fair notice of renewals and make cancellations simple and accessible. Those businesses should not be placed at a disadvantage against competitors using confusing or restrictive practices to retain customers unfairly.

This legislation also takes important steps to address the issue of hidden fees and misleading pricing practices that have become increasingly common in today's marketplace, particularly on online transactions. Australians deserve to know the true cost of a product or service before they commit to making a purchase, yet too often consumers are presented with an advertised price that appears attractive at first instance only to discover additional compulsory charges later at the check-out process. By the time these extra costs are revealed, consumers may have already invested a considerable amount of time entering personal details, comparing options or progressing through multiple stages of transactions. This practice is commonly referred to as drip pricing, which undermines transparency and weakens confidence in the market. It creates a situation where the initial advertised price does not accurately reflect what a consumer would actually pay. Instead, mandatory booking fees, processing charges, service costs or other unavoidable additions are gradually introduced throughout the purchasing process, making that final, substantial amount much higher than originally expected.

Clear and accurate pricing is fundamental to a fair and competitive economy. Consumers can only make informed decisions when they have access to genuine and complete information. If important costs are concealed or delayed, it becomes far more difficult for individuals to properly compare products and services across the market. The reforms in this bill will require businesses to present all mandatory transactions related to charges at the same time the advertised price is displayed. In other words, consumers will see the true price upfront rather than being confronted with unexpected additions at the end of the process. This does not prevent businesses from charging legitimate fees, nor does it interfere with their ability to structure prices appropriately. What it does is require honesty and transparency about the total unavoidable cost a consumer can expect to pay.

Like I said earlier, it is about keeping alive the neighbourhoods our grandparents built and the neighbourhoods we still want to live in today. Australians should not need to navigate hidden traps, confusing interfaces or concealed fees simply to participate in everyday economy and commerce. Consumers deserve transparency. They deserve fairness. Businesses that do the right thing deserve a marketplace where integrity is rewarded rather than undermined. That is why this bill is about restoring and reinforcing trust in fair competition and trust that Australians will be treated honestly when they spend their hard-earned money. That is good for consumers, good for businesses and good for the Australian economy.

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