The State Liberals today attacked the Rann Government for failing to take action against retailers who continue ripping-off consumers at the checkout.
Shadow Consumer Affairs Minister Michelle Lensink criticised Consumer Affairs Minister Gago and her predecessor Mrs Rankine for making idle threats rather than acting to stamp out price scanning inaccuracy by retailers.
“The Minister, her predecessor and Office for Consumer and Business Affairs are all aware of the problem, they have talked tough but not delivered,” Ms Lensink said.
“The Minister’s inaction in this area has resulted in nearly 10% of check-out prices being inaccurate for South Australians.”
Ms Lensink raised the issue in State Parliament today in response to the fifth National Price scanning audit carried out jointly by consumer watchdogs in each state which shows SA is the worst performer in price scanning accuracy at the check out.
“On at least three separate occasions the Minister has threatened action on behalf of the OCBA,’’ Ms Lensink said.
“But when questioned today about how many prosecutions or other enforcement actions OCBA has carried out in relation to price scanning accuracy breaches, the Minister had no information.”
Ms Lensink said previous threats these rip-offs would not be tolerated were made:
• On 23 April 2009 by Minister Gago when she said retailers were ‘on notice that any repeat behaviour will prompt enforcement action’.
• On 23 April 2007 by former Minister Rankine who stated “there is no excuse for any store failing to address pricing errors, and the Office will take action where an outlet fails to resolve a scanning problem that have been brought to its attention”, and
• On 28 April 2006 when Minister Rankine said “if errors are again detected OCBA will consider prosecution action”.
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