Fatima Payman (WA, Australia's Voice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Senator Gallagher. Last year the then minister released a consultation paper relating to unfair trading practices and committed to banning subscription traps, dynamic pricing and drip pricing. These reforms would provide an immediate benefit to Australians who find themselves trapped paying for subscription services that seem impossible to cancel. Submissions for the consultation closed in December. Minister, since then, what work has been done by the government in this area?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Payman for the question and for the heads-up that she was wanting to ask a question on this. I heard her two-minute statement, incidentally, which covered this matter as well. As was outlined in the question, this is an issue the government has done quite a bit of work on. In fact, consultation started some time ago last year on a number of these areas and finished in December 2024. This is an area the Prime Minister has been very clear about, as has the Treasurer, the Assistant Treasurer and Dr Leigh, who's been leading this work in the other place

Fifty-nine submissions were received, including six confidential submissions. Treasury has since held a number of bilateral meetings and roundtables with stakeholders, including consumer advocates, industry groups and academics. In total, 138 written submissions have been received over the two rounds of consultation. This is an area where we have to work with the state and territory consumer affairs ministers. The government has considered the feedback provided and will focus on unfair-trading-practice reforms to address a range of manipulative practices, including unfair subscription practices such as: subscription traps that make cancelling a subscription difficult; drip-pricing practices, where fees are hidden or added through the stages of a purchase; and the use of dark patterns, which manipulate or undermine consumer decision-making in digital interfaces.

Treasury is now completing the regulatory impact analysis to inform decision-making on reforms to unfair trading practices and is engaging with states and territories to settle a final reform proposal. We do have to have agreement with states and territories. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Payman, first supplementary?

Fatima Payman (WA, Australia's Voice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've been speaking to stakeholders as well. They've raised with me further reforms, such as requiring that e-commerce websites allow customers to check out as guests rather than forcing them to register an account with the website, and compelling subscription services to send timely renewal reminders before charging customers, particularly when free trials of services end and become paid subscriptions. Will the government implement these reforms?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Payman for the supplementary. Some months ago, last year, work started on a whole range of unfair trading practices and were considered by the consultation paper. I'm not sure if Senator Payman has seen that, but that covered subscriptions, as I mentioned. It covered the fact of mandating that consumers have an online account, requiring them to provide unnecessary personal information in order to make a purchase, making it difficult to access customer support to raise a complaint or problem and subscription cancellation—a range of areas. These are all areas the government has done work on. If the stakeholders are raising this with Senator Payman, I have no doubt they've raised it through the government's process which occurred several months ago. As I said, these areas are being pursued now through a regulatory impact analysis and with work with the states and territories where we have an intergovernmental agreement for Australian consumer laws. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Payman, second supplementary?

Fatima Payman (WA, Australia's Voice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Research by ING found that 32 per cent of Australians who pay for subscriptions that they don't use say they forgot to cancel a free trial, while 23 per cent forgot that they were subscribed at all. This is an issue that is affecting thousands of Australians across the country. When will the government legislate a ban on subscription traps and other unfair trading practices?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We certainly welcome Senator Payman's support for the reforms that we started investigating last year and have held two consultation rounds on. We are developing the regulatory impact analysis now in order to go forward, with the agreement of the states and territories. This is a priority. It's been led by the government. It's been led by the ministers that identified the problems—problems like the subscriptions, like not being able to cancel or like providing too much information in order to access a purchase. All of those areas are problems that have been identified by this government and will be addressed by this government in cooperation with state and territory governments, as is required under Australian consumer laws.