Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It wasn't quite 'fight them on the beaches', member for Mackellar, but anyway! Labor is happy to support this Treasury Laws Amendment (Gift Cards) Bill 2018. It is in the interests of consumers, and Labor will always be on the side of consumers. But I must point out that we do have the second reading amendment that the member for Brand moved, which I do support—mainly that we note the government's lack of support for and failure to protect Australian consumers to date. That is partly because this legislation has been so long in coming, and I'll come to that. And it calls on the government to reinvigorate the national consumer affairs forum process to enable the much-needed reform of Australian Consumer Law. That's a very important process that the current minister has allowed to languish, which is a great shame for consumers. That's a very important protection measure, and we very much look forward to seeing that consumer affairs forum re-established.

This principle behind this bill is that, essentially, it contains a schedule which will allow gift cards to have an expiry date of three years, which is a great improvement on the current system. But I know that the cry across Australia will be: 'Why have any expiry date at all? Obviously, you pay cash—$50 or $100—for a gift card. Why doesn't the card have the same expiry date as cash, which is none?' That's a very good question, and the answer is, of course, that small business can't carry liabilities forever. Small business has to balance the books, so this is a good compromise, I think, between having no expiry date on a gift card and meeting the needs of small business—three years.

If you get a gift card for Christmas or your birthday—and I would counsel any husband in this place not to buy their wife a gift card for their anniversary; I think that is a recipe for disaster! I'll just say that—

An opposition member: Shame!

Shame indeed, for those who are foolish enough to try! So I think that three years is a good compromise between those competing needs.

I'm pleased to say that there are a number of retailers—the big retailers—who can afford to carry the liability of gift cards with no expiry date on them into perpetuity, and that's good to see. The big retailers can do that, so, hopefully, you can use your gift card; you can dig it out of the bottom drawer, dust off the grunge and spend it five, six or seven years down the track.

The schedule in this bill also increases transparency requirements for gift cards to be fully legible. The member for Makin made reference to the unintended consequences when the conditions of gift cards are not entirely clear. It's unacceptable that somebody can pay cash for a gift card and think that they're giving this lovely gift to somebody but that when they try to spend that gift card at a shop, the shop says, 'Well, yes, you can use the gift card, but only if you spend some money with us as well.' That is unacceptable, and this legislation will make it clear that conditions like that will have to be spelt out very clearly.

It's sad to say that this legislation has been far too long in coming. This bill had to be approved by the Commonwealth, state and territory consumer affairs ministers by a tortuous circular process, not helped by the fact the forum scheduled for 31 August was cancelled and later deferred to 31 October due to the well-known machinations within the government and the problems they had with their leadership over the last few months.

I'd like to come briefly to the issue of small-amount credit contracts, which are part of the consumer affairs portfolio and go to the second reading amendment—about the failures of the government in relation to consumer affairs. I'm pleased to see that the assistant minister has joined us, because this goes directly to his failures as minister. The country is plagued by payday lending: loan sharks. There is a crisis underway. I must say that, led by the shadow consumer affairs minister, and particularly by the member for Oxley, we have shone a light on this disgraceful state of affairs with payday loan sharks and the number of people they affect.

There's been legislation on the books in this place for a long time which the government has failed to enact. The government has refused to bring forward its own legislation to a vote. Labor brought forward a private member's bill using exactly the same words as the government's bill, and the government voted it down. The government effectively voted down its own bill which would protect people from the effects of payday loan sharks. That's a disgrace.

The legislation would reform small-amount credit contracts; impose a ceiling on the total payments that can be made under a rent-to-buy scheme; require payday loans to have equal repayments at equal payment intervals; remove the ability for small-amount credit contract providers to charge monthly fees on residual terms of a loan where a consumer fully repays the loan early; ban unsolicited sales of the schemes; and introduce broad anti-avoidance protections to prevent payday lenders and rent-to-buy companies from circumventing the rules. These are all very good reforms. They should happen. But under this assistant minister they're sitting in a bottom drawer somewhere not happening, because the parliamentary friends of payday lending have control of the government. Those opposite are in the pockets of the loan sharks. They're refusing to bring on their own bill. They've voted down Labor's bill, which is identical to their own—a bill that will protect consumers. It's a disgrace.

Here are some payday lending facts and figures. These figures are from a recent report from the Consumer Action Law Centre and they go directly to the second reading amendment about this government's failure to protect Australian consumers. The rate of vulnerable Australian families being taken advantage of by payday lenders has almost doubled over the past decade, with 650,000 financially stressed households now holding a payday loan. The number of borrowers taking out more than one payday loan in the preceding 12 months has grown from 17.2 per cent in 2005 to 38 per cent in 2015. That means the average number of payday loans per borrower is 3.64. Forty per cent of people who entered into a small-amount credit contract loan are unemployed, so they're not in the best position to repay these high-interest loans. A quarter of those who took out payday loans received more than half their income from Centrelink. We're talking about interest rates as high as 884 per cent on these loans. Can you imagine an interest rate of 884 per cent? And this government does nothing about addressing this issue, despite having legislation ready to go that this side will support. We're talking about payday loans that affect 1.8 million financially distressed Australians, who are also struggling with all sorts of other cost-of-living increases. It's an absolute failure of this government to look after the interests of Australian consumers.

Recent data shows there are now 800,000 Australian households which have fallen victim to payday lending. It's more than doubled in the past decade. In the last 18 months alone, 150,000 new households have signed up for payday loans. There is a crisis out there. What this signals is that people can't afford to get credit by the usual means; they're already stretched, so in desperation they're going to these loan sharks—150,000 households in the past 18 months alone. That's a staggering number. And this government is doing nothing to address this consumer crisis across Australia. It's now been 1,168 days since the government itself started a review into payday loans, and it has done nothing. Those opposite have been so obsessed by their own internal machinations, their own problems inside their own party, that they're not looking after Australian consumers. Stop looking after yourselves and start looking after Australian consumers. What has been going on is a disgrace.

I'd like to come briefly to the issue which goes to the second reading amendment about honey laundering. It's a great term, invented, I think, by the shadow minister. Well done, Shadow Minister! Honey laundering is a funny term for a serious subject. As the member for Lyons in Tasmania, I do have honey producers in my electorate, quite a number of them. They are aghast to learn that Tasmania has been caught up in this adulteration of Australian honey. It's a serious issue because Tasmania, as anybody who went to the fantastic event last night—the Flavours of Tasmania—knows, Tasmania trades on its well-deserved reputation as a place of exceptional quality and exceptional integrity when it comes to produce. So, for Tasmania to be caught up in this honey-laundering scandal, where honey has been adulterated with sugars that are not pure honey, it is very distressing for a number of quality honey producers across my electorate.

This is right in the assistant minister's remit. He could be and should be doing something about this. I mean, he's using plenty of internet. There is the $38,000 worth of internet he's using at home. There's plenty that the assistant minister could be doing. He could get on to Google, at least, to check out what is happening. He could be phoning people and finding out what's going on. He's using plenty of data. I'm not sure what data he's using to rack up $38,000 worth of bills to the taxpayer but he's certainly not doing it to look after the honey producers of Tasmania or the honey producers across Australia or those many hundreds of thousands of Australians affected by payday loan sharks.

We on this side are happy to support this bill but we do move these very important second reading amendments. We hope those opposite can see themselves fit to support the second reading amendments because they are important amendments in the interests of Australian consumers. It is in the interests of Australian consumers to extend the life of gift cards. It is an important bill and I commend it to the House.

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