Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The minister has different views from mine on consumer protection, and that is fine. But I take offence at the idea that we should not be asking questions about consumer protections and how far they extend—specific questions I have been asking that are not covered by the explanatory memorandum. I thank the minister for reading his answer into Hansard. It was an effective justification of the point we have been making—which is that there are not protections in this legislation beyond certain key industries that have been identified and there is a real and legitimate concern that, outside of a few sectors, savings are not going to be passed on.

The minister also made reference to some changes to the ACCC. I want to get my understanding of this correct. Have provisions been made for the process that is going to be put in place for people to be able to make complaints to the ACCC more easily, if this legislation is passed, about businesses not passing on the savings and about false and misleading claims? I accept that there is only a legislative requirement for certain businesses to have to pass it on; with the others, we are going to try and let the market fix it for us. But the minister talked about how incredibly improper it is for businesses to make false and misleading claims about the impact of climate change and the price of carbon. There are people making claims in a false and misleading way that prices are going to be reduced or costs absorbed. Does that only apply to businesses, minister, not individuals or people making claims outside of that? Yesterday the Senate sat until quite late, but I managed to make the time to go to Coles in Manuka, which is well known to a lot of us. I went there to buy a leg of lamb. Even though it is the holy month of Ramadan I still thought I would eat a bit of ham. It was not $100 though; it cost about $26. Minister, you are saying this is limited to those who make false or misleading claims. If a politician or a public servant makes false claims about the price of carbon, is that okay?