Consumer Protection

• New retirement village laws underway to improve seniors' experiences of entering, living in and leaving a village, and support the sector's long-term viability
• Exit entitlements to be paid to former residents within 12 months of their departure from a village
• Proposed changes to balance greater protections for village residents and the interests of operators

The McGowan Government is progressing its reforms of the laws covering retirement villages in Western Australia to make retirement village life fairer and easier for seniors.

• McGowan Government providing almost $9 million over two years to tenancy advocates and legal centres across WA
• Funding in 2023-24 State Budget to enable tenants in need of help to access advice, assistance and legal support at little or no cost

Community legal centres across Western Australia will receive a funding boost in the 2023-24 State Budget to provide advice and support to the increased number of residential tenants requiring assistance in the current tight rental market.

Swelling demand for shipping containers is causing Western Australian consumers to be scammed out of their money at a rate of knots.

When items are in high demand yet short in supply, they become easy targets for scammers who know that when people are desperate to buy scarce items, they can forget to ‘practice the pause’ to consider whether they are being swindled.

When you walk away from a tenancy, an important next step is working out how the security bond paid at the start of the lease will be distributed between tenant and landlord.

Tenants may be relying on getting back the money to help with finding a new place to live, while landlords may need some – or all – of the funds to cover damage or cleaning costs.

• 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.

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.

• 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.

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.

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.

• State Government campaign launched to empower new pet owners to understand their consumer rights
• 186 consumer complaints received about issues with new pets in the last three years
• Almost $30,000 total successfully refunded to complainants from 2020 to 2022

Commerce Minister Sue Ellery today launched a new pet buyer awareness campaign promoting Western Australians' rights when purchasing a pet, following a spike in complaints to Consumer Protection.