Consumer Protection

With a world-class fishing industry right on our doorstep, it’s little wonder so many Western Australian consumers are hooked on seafood.

But if you’ve ever sat down at a restaurant and thought there was something fishy about the menu, rest assured that changes are coming to help clear up some of the confusion.

In a move designed to increase consumer awareness about where our food comes from, the Federal Government is working with restaurants, cafés and hotels across Australia to implement mandatory country of origin labelling on the seafood being served.

Whether you need a qualified tradesperson to tackle a home project or a handyman for a quick repair, it’s important to know the operator you’ve hired is trustworthy and reliable.

While the majority of tradies do the right thing, we are contacted by disgruntled consumers about the minority that don’t.

In the past 12 months, we have received 579 complaints about those working in trades industries, mostly to do with them failing to exercise due care and skill, as well as wrongly accepting payment.

• WA Government has partnered with IDCARE to deliver 20 Cyber Resilience Outreach Clinics, with a focus on remote and regional areas
• Western Australians lost a record total of almost $16 million to scams in 2022
• Report scams and suspicious activity to WA ScamNet to warn the community

The McGowan Government has joined forces with Australia and New Zealand's national identity and cyber support service, IDCARE, to deliver 20 Cyber Resilience Outreach Clinics (CROC) throughout Western Australia.

Scammers have been pretending to call or text from financial institutions for years, but it’s the latest twist on these banking impersonation scams that should have all consumers on high alert.

• New funeral pricing laws will now be enforced, with businesses warned to comply
• Providers to give a breakdown of costs and a total price before a funeral is held
• Measures designed to stop questionable sales practices and prevent overcharging

From today, funeral companies in Western Australia will face enforcement action if they fail to comply with new pricing laws introduced by the McGowan Government that make funeral costs clearer for those grieving the loss of a loved one.

During the chilly months, it’s important to keep our families warm while also staying vigilant to the potential dangers of commonly-used heating products.

Children are particularly vulnerable to burns and accidents from ‘winter warmers’ such as hot water bottles, open flames, heaters and loose-fitting sleepwear.  

They come in all shapes and sizes to power many different devices, yet every battery has the potential to become a menace if they end up in your rubbish or recycling bin.

Some batteries contain toxic chemicals, heavy metals and other pollutants that can contaminate water supplies when they enter landfill, while rechargeable lithium-ion batteries become fire hazards if they are damaged or crushed during the waste collection process.

• Funeral pricing will be publicly available to enable easy comparisons
• Grieving family and friends will know the total cost before a funeral is held
• Unscrupulous sales practices will be stamped out to stop overcharging

New regulations are now in place that will result in funeral costs being clearer and making it easier for those grieving to make informed decisions at a difficult time.

Ongoing cost of living pressures mean many Western Australians will be looking forward to receiving tax refunds, but the end of a financial year is also a time when scammers emerge with false promises of monetary windfalls.

In a sign scammers are once again ramping up their tax-time efforts, our WA ScamNet team has received reports of a phishing email claiming to be from the Australian Tax Office (ATO), but is actually from a completely unrelated email address.

When it comes time to move out of a rental property, knowing what’s involved in advance can help ensure things run more smoothly.