The member for Southern River Peter Abetz has introduced a Private Members Bill into state parliament aimed at providing small business franchisees greater protection from rogue franchisors.
Mr Abetz said that the Bill seeks to address the imbalance in the relationship between franchisees and franchisors.
He said the imbalance often resulted in the exploitation of small business owners by rogue and unethical operators.
"Soon after coming into the parliament two years ago, some of my constituents made me aware of the significant problems they were facing as franchisees," Mr Abetz said.
"Since then I have spoken with many franchisees, and researched widely on the issue and it has become apparent that a small, but significant number of franchisors are using their superior position to the detriment of their franchisee partners."
Mr Abetz said the Bill is based on a key recommendation of the Federal Parliament Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services report "Opportunity not opportunism: improving conduct in Australian franchising" which advocated for the inclusion of 'good faith' provision in the Federal Franchising Code of Conduct.
"However, the Federal Labor Party failed to act on that recommendation and further failed to act on its 2007 pre-election commitment to change the Code of Conduct so that all parties to a franchising agreement have to deal with each other in 'good faith'."
Mr Abetz said he was putting forward the bill because of the continual buck passing between the State and Commonwealth bureaucracy on responsibility for the issue, which was leaving vulnerable franchisees with little recourse to their problems.
"I am hoping to break the deadlock and provide our Parliament the opportunity to decide whether, on these issues, it is prepared to offer greater protection to mum and dad franchisees," Mr Abetz said.
He said that the proposed reforms would not result in any further regulations of the franchise industry but would regulate the conduct of both franchisee and franchisor around the principles of 'good faith' negotiations and conduct.
