ONE in every 10 consumers seeking help over the telephone from the Office of Fair Trading in the past year was given the wrong advice, according to the latest audit of the Government department, while customer satisfaction has dipped to a five-year low.
The 2008 NSW Auditor-General's report has attributed the poor result to longer waiting times and insufficient staff knowledge and notes that the department is working on strategies to lift its game.
Detailed results published in the NSW Department of Commerce's annual report also show that although Fair Trading exceeded its targets for resolving complaints and successful prosecutions in 2007-08, overall the number of successful prosecutions was down 3 percentage points from the previous year, while 10 per cent of callers had received inaccurate advice.
The results come as the consumer advocate group Choice released its report cards on 12 key federal and state consumer protection agencies, none of which managed to achieve a performance level higher than adequate.
NSW Fair Trading, along with its Victorian, Queensland and West Australian equivalents, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, were among those regulators which scraped through with a pass, while the remaining state and territory consumer affairs bodies were below standard or unacceptable.
Although analysed as part of the study, the Therapeutic Goods Administration and the Australian Communications and Media Authority were not given a ranking, due to insufficient data.
Choice's policy director, Gordon Renouf, said he hoped the forthright analysis would encourage consumer protection regulators to improve their planning, consultation, enforcement and transparency.
"Consumer protection laws exist to ensure markets operate fairly but they will not achieve their purpose unless they are effectively enforced," he said.
"Our report shows regulators have different strengths and weaknesses but none is meeting good practice across the board."
The NSW Minister for Fair Trading, Virginia Judge, argued that NSW was leading the charge in enforcing fair trading laws.
Although down on last year's figures, Fair Trading had pursued criminal prosecutions involving 605 offences and won 92 per cent of those cases, with fines and penalties of more than $1.2 million, she said.
"Strong compliance and enforcement activities act as a deterrent against repeat offenders," Ms Judge said in a statement.
The minister said that she had nevertheless ordered an immediate review of the department in light of the Auditor-General's findings. "I'm disappointed, I'm not going to gloss over it."
She said that a raft of training programs would be implemented for departmental staff early in the new year.
The Opposition spokeswoman on fair trading, Catherine Cusack, said she was alarmed but not surprised by the surge in dissatisfaction from the public. She said 2008 had been "an utterly inglorious year for NSW Fair Trading and its former minister, Linda Burney, whose mishandling of Beechwood typified the avalanche of incorrect advice to consumers".
She urged the Premier, Nathan Rees, "to pay closer attention to the current minister, Virginia Judge".