Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018

Spoke in support, emphasising the bill's consumer protection benefits for motor vehicle buyers dealing with unscrupulous manufacturers.

“Any efforts to level the playing field between consumers and unscrupulous manufacturers is a good thing. Therefore, this bill is a good thing.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

As Attorney-General, introduced the bill and spoke in support, highlighting the increase of QCAT's jurisdictional limit for motor vehicle claims from $25,000 to $100,000 to deliver on the government's lemon laws commitment, and operational efficiency improvements to QCAT.

“A remedy is only as good as the ability to enforce it. That is the key principle of this bill.”— 2019-04-02View Hansard

Supported the bill, paying tribute to consumer advocate Ashton Wood whose campaign to crush his defective Jeep Grand Cherokee led to improved consumer protection laws including the increase of QCAT jurisdiction from $25,000 to $100,000.

“Suffice to say that we will be supporting the amendments and supporting the bill. I again thank Ashton and his family for bringing about new laws, for bringing about changes to laws.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Stated the opposition will not oppose the bill and called the reforms necessary, but raised serious concerns about QCAT's chronic under-resourcing, citing QCAT President Justice Daubney and QLS President Bill Potts, and argued the government's one-off $530,000 allocation was inadequate.

“That does not sound to me like Justice Daubney just wants a one-off allocation to deal with a short-term backlog; that to me sounds like a cry for help for additional resources for one of our most important jurisdictions in the Queensland legal system.”— 2019-04-02View Hansard

Supported the bill, outlining the history of QCAT's establishment and its role in consolidating 18 tribunals, and noting the bill delivers on recommendations from the QCAT Act review.

“The establishment of QCAT addressed longstanding concerns about the proliferation of tribunals in Queensland and the need for one single recognisable gateway to increase the community's access to justice.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

As committee chair, spoke in support of the bill's operational efficiency amendments and the increase of QCAT's jurisdictional limit for motor vehicle claims, noting that individual component failures would be treated as separate claims even if cumulative costs exceeded $100,000.

“The purchase of a lemon vehicle can impose a lot of unfair stress on an individual or a family.”— 2019-04-02View Hansard

Supported the bill's consumer protection objectives while raising concerns about QCAT being severely underfunded and under-resourced, citing Justice Daubney's warnings.

“The LNP supports the bill to ensure that consumers have the appropriate protections available to them.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Supported the bill as a step in the right direction but filed a statement of reservation about QCAT's inadequate funding, arguing the one-off $500,000 allocation would not solve the resourcing problem as more claims would flow from the increased jurisdictional limit.

“If we do not resource QCAT properly, this issue will only extend further.”— 2019-04-02View Hansard

Strongly supported the bill, sharing a constituent's story of a defective Subaru Outback whose electronic park brake failed dangerously, and welcoming the reinstatement of statutory warranties for older second-hand vehicles.

“This bill is absolutely about providing access to justice, something that has been denied to purchasers of lemon vehicles for too long.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Spoke in support of the lemon laws provisions, highlighting the bill as delivering on a Palaszczuk government election commitment by increasing QCAT's jurisdictional limit and reinstating statutory warranties for older second-hand vehicles. Debate adjourned during his speech.

“Put simply, this bill will increase the consumer protections of people sold new and old motor vehicles that are duds—also known as lemons.”— 2019-04-02View Hansard

Supported the bill's policy intent for consumer protection but raised concerns about QCAT's stretched jurisdiction and called on the government to urgently review QCAT's funding.

“While I absolutely support any initiative that will result in increased protections for consumers, I call on the Attorney-General and the Palaszczuk Labor government to urgently review QCAT's funding so it has the capacity to deal with this increased jurisdiction and workload.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Supported the bill, sharing a personal story of her parents' lemon Ford XD Falcon and welcoming the expanded QCAT jurisdiction and consumer protections for vehicle buyers.

“I am very pleased that through this bill we will be delivering on the Palaszczuk government's promise to introduce laws to help purchasers of lemon motor vehicles.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Supported the bill but raised significant concerns about QCAT resourcing, particularly for regional constituents who must travel four to six hours to access QCAT in Toowoomba.

“It is not right that QCAT should be accessible only by those who can afford to travel or who live close by.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Supported the bill as delivering on the government's election commitment to provide greater consumer protections for buyers of lemon vehicles, highlighting the power imbalance between consumers and manufacturers.

“I wholeheartedly support this bill. It protects consumers in Queensland, like constituents in my electorate of Ipswich.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Supported the bill's expansion of QCAT jurisdiction to $100,000, particularly welcoming protections for retirees who invest in fifth wheelers and motorhomes, but stressed the need for QCAT resourcing.

“If we are going to allow more matters to potentially go before QCAT, this will cause a greater delay in hearings and therefore slow down the process and increase frustration for our constituents.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Supported the bill's consumer protection reforms, criticising the LNP for scrapping the class B statutory warranty in 2014 which hurt the poorest in the community.

“The class B statutory used car warranty was scrapped by those opposite in 2014. As often happens with decisions made by the LNP, scrapping this warranty hurt the poorest in our community.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Supported the bill but focused extensively on concerns about QCAT's expanding workload without additional resources, quoting Justice Daubney's warnings about staff being stretched beyond tolerance.

“The Liberal National Party will always support initiatives that aim to provide fairness and provide increased protection to consumers, particularly those who purchase new and used vehicles.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Supported the bill, highlighting the benefit of the increased QCAT jurisdiction for family-sized vehicle purchases and the reinstatement of class B warranties for constituents who purchase older second-hand vehicles.

“These amendments are about improving fairness and providing greater rights to vehicle buyers in Queensland.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Supported the bill's consumer protection amendments while raising concerns about QCAT resourcing and suggesting the definition of vehicle be expanded to include mobile dwellings, campervans, and camper trailers.

“Whilst these amendments are needed, provision must be made to increase QCAT's financing to deal with the current overloads that have led to lengthy delays for our constituents before further increasing its workloads and responsibilities.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Supported the bill, outlining QCAT's broad jurisdictional areas and the expansion of motor vehicle dispute jurisdiction to $100,000.

“The increased jurisdiction will allow people to bring applications to QCAT to enable them to recover in relation to vehicles. The increase in jurisdiction has been welcomed by most people.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Supported the bill's intent to protect vehicle consumers but expressed strong concern that QCAT lacks the resources to handle the expanded jurisdiction, warning of 'empty words with no actions'.

“A bill with no resources to support its implementation becomes empty words on paper. It will not sufficiently address the financial and emotional burdens placed upon my constituents by an unresolved lemon purchase.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Spoke in support as Minister for Education, defending QCAT as a successful Labor initiative and dismissing opposition concerns about resourcing, noting the independent review found QCAT was working well.

“QCAT has been an incredible success. As I said, it was a Labor initiative. The Attorney-General more than adequately funds QCAT.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Supported the bill but focused on the serious backlog of Office of the Health Ombudsman matters before QCAT, citing evidence that 30 matters were awaiting decisions with an average wait of 314 days, and calling for urgent resourcing.

“Though we support the bill, the comments I make today are by myself and the issue here is funding QCAT to do the job it is paid to do.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Supported the bill as a great step forward for consumer protection, but urged the government to heed Justice Daubney's concerns about QCAT's workload and resource it properly.

“I think it is a great step forward and many people will benefit from the work that we have done today in the House.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Supported the lemon laws as praiseworthy consumer protection, but stressed the urgent need for QCAT resourcing as its ever-expanding workload is not being matched by funding.

“The LNP will always support any initiative which aims to improve fairness by providing better protection for consumers, especially for purchasers of new vehicles.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Supported the bill, sharing a personal experience with Ford vehicles where the ACCC had to intervene, and welcoming the lemon laws as a needed addition.

“The lemon laws are a welcome addition. It is certainly somewhere we would have gone had they been in place at that time.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard

Supported the bill's consumer protection provisions, describing the scenario of purchasing a lemon vehicle and the need for accessible remedies through QCAT rather than expensive court proceedings.

“The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018, which I stand to speak on today, seeks to provide vulnerable Queenslanders that extra option.”— 2019-04-03View Hansard