Brendan Ryan (Labour)

It never ceases to amaze me that people who proclaim their commitment to the market economy and the competition model of economic efficiency always seem to be late when it comes to the most important part of competition policy – that there should be perfect knowledge to both participants in an economic transaction, yet we spend years explaining why this is a bad idea. We have a medical profession which believes it is a bad idea to have tabulated fees people can look at.

We have a motion and amendment before the House. I prefer the motion. It is astonishing, after the last six years of the most spectacular property boom, that the Government is asking us to set up a review to examine whether there is a need for the introduction of a code of ethics and professional standards in auctioneering.

I took it for granted that any profession accepted the need for a code of ethics and professional standards. In my profession we have a code of ethics, as we have one in this House. The Minister of State, Deputy Tony O'Malley, as a pharmacist, has a code of ethics. The medical profession has a well developed code of ethics. It might hard to believe, but the Law Society has one. Six years into the most lucrative time in the history of the property industry, the Government is asking me to agree to an examination of whether auctioneers need a code of ethics. Even if they were saints, they still would need a code of ethics.

The public needs to know by what standards people operate. This is where consumer legislation in the broader sense is so important. Individual consumers by definition do not have perfect information. If the consumers do not have this, then there is no perfect competition. If there is no perfect competition, someone is left with an unfair advantage or disadvantage. Any half decent economist will state that once perfect competition is moved away from, their models do not work. The whole thing becomes skewed and goes in different directions than intended. That is why we need external regulation of all these areas.