The Franchise Council of Australia has slammed South Australian Labor backbencher Tony Piccolo’s introduction of a private member’s Bill into the State Parliament as a retrograde step. The Bill proposes state-specific franchising regulation.

Executive director of the FCA, Steve Wright, said Piccolo’s move attempts to take back the sector to a time when state rather than national law ruled the governance of franchising.

“How can it possibly be good for business to introduce different business rules in one state when we currently have national rules across all states and territories?

“The Federal Government is currently trying to do the exact opposite by harmonizing business and consumer law – and the FCA fully supports that initiative.

“To suggest that such a move would increase efficiency beggars belief. On the contrary, it will directly increase compliance costs and create a clear disincentive to franchise investment in SA. I don’t know of a single franchise system in SA which is in favour of it,” Wright added.

Piccolo has said his proposed Bill aims to address the issue of good faith missing from federal government recommendations of changes to be made to the Franchising Code of Conduct which governs the sector. Other suggestions raised include financial penalties for breaches of the code.

The private member’s Bill was introduced at the end of the 2009 sittings.

Wright said “Thankfully, this means it is only a small possibility that the Bill is considered before the state poll in March. Hopefully it will be buried with the poll and its like will never be seen again in SA, or in any other state.”