EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Subject – Trade Practices Amendment (Australian Consumer Law) Act (No. 1) 2010
Proclamation
Item 2 of the table in subsection 2(1) of the Trade Practices Amendment (Australian Consumer Law) Act (No. 1) 2010 (the Act) provides that Schedule 1 to the Act commences on a day to be fixed by Proclamation if the Act does not receive the Royal Assent before 1 January 2010, which must not be before 1 July 2010. If any of the provisions of Schedule 1 do not commence within six months of the date the Act receives the Royal Assent, those provisions commence on the first day after the end of that six-month period. The Act received the Royal Assent on 14 April 2010.
The purpose of the Proclamation is to fix 1 July 2010 as the day on which Schedule 1 to the Act will commence.
The Act establishes the Australian Consumer Law (ACL): a single, national consumer law. The Act also makes provision for the application, administration and amendment of the ACL, introduces provisions regulating unfair contract terms and introduces new penalties, enforcement powers and consumer redress options. In addition, the Act makes mirror amendments to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (ASIC Act) to maintain consistency with the ACL.
The Proclamation relates to the commencement of the provisions relating to the application, administration and amendment of the ACL and the unfair contract terms provisions in the ACL and the ASIC Act. The Proclamation will also have the effect of causing other parts of the Act, which relate mainly to enforcement and remedies of the unfair contract terms provisions and of the ACL, to commence on the same date. Sections 1 to 3 of the Act commenced on 14 April 2010 and the remaining provisions of the Act, which relate mainly to the introduction of new enforcement and remedies provisions in the Trade Practices Act 1974 and the ASIC Act, commenced on 15 April 2010.
The commencement date provides time for businesses to comply with the new law.
The Proclamation is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.
Authority: Item 2 of the table in subsection 2(1) of the Trade Practices Amendment (Australian Consumer Law) Act (No. 1) 2010