Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading (Tas)
A short factsheet on Tasmania's consumer protection regulator: the two-Act structure that splits establishing the Office from applying the Australian Consumer Law, and the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading who sits at the join.
Learning outcomes
- Distinguish the Consumer Affairs Act 1988 (Tas), which establishes the Office and the Director, from the Australian Consumer Law (Tasmania) Act 2010, which applies the ACL and provides for enforcement.
- Identify the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading as the office both Acts turn on, and CBOS as the administrative unit.
- Explain why a student must read both Acts to answer a Tasmanian consumer law question about powers.
Acts: Consumer Affairs Act 1988 (Tas)1 and the Australian Consumer Law (Tasmania) Act 2010.2
Established: The 1988 Act establishes a Consumer Affairs Council and an Office of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading, for making investigations into, collecting and disseminating information on, and reporting on matters affecting consumers. It also creates the office of Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading.
Purpose: Consumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS) — a business unit of the Department of Justice — is the administrative body through which the function is delivered.
Where the authority sits: two Acts, not one
Tasmania is the only jurisdiction in this set that splits the job across two Acts, and a student who reads only one will answer the wrong question.
- The 1988 Act establishes the Office and creates the Director.
- The 2010 Act applies the Australian Consumer Law as a law of Tasmania and provides for enforcement — and it does not create anything. Its definition simply points back: "Director means the person holding the office of Director of Consumer Affairs under the Consumer Affairs Act 1988."
So the source of a power depends on which Act confers it. A question about the Office's investigative and reporting role goes to 1988; a question about the Australian Consumer Law or its enforcement goes to 2010; and a question about who may exercise either goes to the Director, defined in one Act and created in the other.
Note the two Acts do not name the office identically — the 1988 Act appoints a "Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading", while the 2010 Act's definition refers to the "Director of Consumer Affairs" under that Act. Cite the Act you are relying on rather than blending them.
Powers conferred under the Acts
The 1988 Act frames the Office's purposes around investigation, information and reporting on matters affecting consumers, and establishes the Council that advises the Minister.
Enforcement works through authorized officers. Under the 1988 Act an authorized officer is the Director, or a person declared to be or appointed as an authorized officer under that Act — so the Director both holds the office and is the baseline enforcement officer, with others added by appointment.
Is it a prosecuting authority?
Answer it from the right Act. The 2010 Act is the one that provides for enforcement of itself and of related Acts, so questions about proceedings under the Australian Consumer Law (Tasmania) belong there rather than in the 1988 Act's investigative and reporting framework. Neither Act sets out a list of Director functions naming prosecution in the way Victoria's s 109(f) does.
Self-check
- Have I identified which of the two Acts confers the power I am relying on?
- Have I cited the office by the name the Act I am citing actually uses?
- Have I checked whether the person exercising the power is an authorized officer, and under which Act they hold that status?