As rents continue rising across Western Australia, many tenants are finding that in addition to paying more money to live in their home each week, there is an extra expense they need to consider. After rent is increased at a property, a landlord or property manager is entitled to ask the tenant to pay extra money towards their security bond. Known as a ‘bond top-up’, the amount of money requested...

Motorists in Perth and Mandurah are advised to fill up now if they need to, with petrol prices set to rise tomorrow. FuelWatch reports that, from 6am tomorrow (Wednesday 27 July 2022), the average price of regular unleaded petrol (ULP) will increase by over 23 cents per litre (cpl) to 186.5 cpl. Ampol, Caltex Woolworths and Coles Express hiking by up to 44 cpl up to 199.9 cpl; 7-Eleven up to 195...

A ground and air cargo services company has been fined $110,000 (and ordered to pay $8000 in costs) over an incident in which a baggage handler was seriously injured when he fell from a moving baggage tug at Perth Airport. Swissport Australia Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace and, by that failure, causing serious injury to a worker, and was fined in the...

Moving house is widely considered to be one of life’s most stressful events, so we always urge consumers to choose their removalist carefully to avoid any extra drama on the day. Consumer Protection has recently received a growing number of complaints about the conduct of removalists advertising on social media. Initially the trader quotes an hourly rate and requests a small deposit, however upon...

The department has released a series of translated information on the WHS laws to assist vulnerable worker groups, including culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) populations. These information sheets are based on the WHS interpretative guidelines, the information sheets contain simplified wording providing people with guidance on the key concepts they need to understand, with hyperlinks...

Investment, particularly cryptocurrency, scams make up almost half of losses in 2022 $4.1 million dollars were conned out of 71 WA investors so far this year Potential investors urged to first seek professional advice from a licensed advisor Investment scams mostly involving cryptocurrencies are driving a surge in losses reported by WA victims to record levels in 2022. These scams now represent...

The Minister for Industrial Relations has approved a series of Work Health and Safety codes of practice which came into effect today. These codes have been adapted for Western Australian work health and safety environments from the Model codes of practice published by Safe Work Australia, developed through consultation with unions and employer organisations. Dr Patricia Todd, Chair of the Work...

Babies can spend up to 17 hours a day sleeping, so it’s vital to ensure the place where they spend all this time resting is as safe as possible. As the range of infant sleeping products available in the Australian market continues to grow, leading medical and injury prevention experts, industry and regulators have developed a new best practice guide for the design of safe infant sleeping...

Motorists in Perth and Mandurah are advised to fill up now if they need to, with petrol prices set to rise tomorrow. FuelWatch reports that, from 6am tomorrow (Wednesday 13 July 2022), the average price of regular unleaded petrol (ULP) will increase by over 20 cents per litre (cpl) to 209.7 cpl. 7-Eleven hiking by up to 38 cpl up to 225.9 cpl; Coles Express and Ampol up to 219.9 cpl; BP up to 217...

Online shopping has revolutionised the way many of us buy goods, but it has also meant navigating additional challenges not faced by traditional in-store shoppers. Given online purchasers are required to pay for their items upfront before waiting to receive them, a common complaint we hear about is goods taking a long time to arrive, or perhaps never arriving at all. We recently raised the alarm...

Text message recipients are advised they are a close contact Link in text goes to fake order form to get a PCR test kit Scammers seek to steal personal and financial information WA mobile phone users are being urged to ignore scam texts purporting to be from a federal government agency that contain a dodgy link and an offer of free COVID-19 PCR test kits. Recently the texts have appeared to come...

Today Energy Policy WA (EPWA) officially commences as a business group of the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS). In 2019, EPWA was established as a sub-department of DMIRS providing policy advice to the Minister for Energy on the supply of secure, reliable, sustainable and affordable energy services to Western Australian households and businesses. DMIRS Director General...