Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Certainly, Madam Deputy Speaker. We do know that, in extending the credit limit, the government wants to raise that to $250 billion and in the process to define and get rid of special circumstances. That has happened at the same time that it has dumped the need for the special circumstances for itself but not for the voters. The government is refusing to apply to itself the same principles of accountability that it is willing to enforce on people through this bill.

Looking at the bill in more detail, the proposal to have credit institutions develop a key facts sheet on credit products has some merit. Many of them currently provide this information in an open and honest manner and standardising this across institutions would make comparisons easier. But I wonder what such a sheet would look like for the government.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Forrest has been warned. She will go to the bill before her.

And I have, Madam Deputy Speaker. The bill prohibits credit providers from making unsolicited invitations that encourage consumers to increase their credit limits, except where the consumer has consented to receive such offers. Many of us have received in the mail those 'you have been approved to go further into debt' letters, especially during the credit gluts of the 1980s and the early 2000s. Your mail on that day might have offered to double your credit card limit and also have been full of unaddressed brochures on the things to spend that extra credit on.

While reducing the number of these offers going out, we should be looking at alternative ways to prevent people going too far into debt. This probably needs to start when we are younger. Many young Australians leave school with the legal capacity to go into debt but not the training to understand and manage that debt. Indeed, many college and university graduates are highly skilled in the technical fields they studied but are horribly ignorant of the financial facts that might keep their businesses open and themselves out of bankruptcy. It is this lack of economic education which is, to my mind, one of the prime reasons for the economic hardship faced by so many young Australians today.

I am sure that the government would agree that having some debt is not a problem if you can manage it and repay it comfortably. The secret is to control the debt before it controls you. I am afraid that this has not applied to the government itself. The government at last has responded, through this bill, to industry concerns and provided amendments at this late stage. These eleventh hour amendments have certainly responded to industry concerns. However, the need for a full review of Australia's financial system, as is part our nine-point banking plan announced last year, certainly would not go astray.

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