Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very, very pleased to join the member for Brand today, the shadow minister in this area, First, before the member for Hinkler leaves: he spent two minutes criticising the Queensland government for price settings when he's part of a government that could fix this right now. They could fix this today. In fact, they've done all the preparation work to fix this scourge on our vulnerable people today.

There are the questions raised by those opposite. They want to know: how do you regulate free will? Well, let me tell you how you regulate free will. You bring in more severe penalties for the shonks and the shysters who are ripping people off. That's how you regulate free will. How do you regulate free will? You cap the repayments. This is your draft legislation. These were your plans, and you have lost your way. Rather than minister after minister responsible for this space coming in here and putting it to a vote, knowing full well that they will have support on this side and that we could have this legislation through, we could change these practices today and we could protect vulnerable people from the debt spiral that you've heard about from my colleagues.

Let's go to some of that. It is 1,173 days since the results of the review were tabled—1,173 days of unconscionable inaction from those opposite. It is an absolute disgrace. In my electorate, these are the stories that I hear and that the people in my electorate hear and care about. Our local CLC, West Justice, did a survey at a mental health clinic day that they do. They found that 23 per cent of the people who were in an in-stay situation in our local mental health institution had a payday loan. These people are incredibly unwell—unwell enough to be hospitalised, and they've got payday loans. Of those, 25 per cent had more than one payday loan. When I first started getting interested in this, I sat with Consumer Action Law in Victoria. They told me that there were, supposedly, regulations already in place that said people could only have one loan. So how on earth do people have more than one loan? They have more than one loan because there is nobody regulating in this space. There's nobody observing this space. There's nobody ensuring that things that are already in place are being looked after.

When Labor were last in government in this space, we did bring in some regulations and it's our belief now that what we did then needs further work. We agree with the government's draft legislation. We agree that a measure of vulnerability is not limited to people who are in receipt of social welfare. It's not limited. I know lots of working poor in my electorate. I know lots of people who have full-time jobs and are struggling to pay their rent and I know lots of working people who are looking to payday loans to get them over those humps in the road. I've got no problem with this industry existing. What I want to see is an industry that's clearly regulated. What I want to see is ethical compliance to a set of regulations that will protect the vulnerable people in my electorate. I want this government to give the Australian public some assurance that the banking royal commission is not a farce; it's not a sideshow. We can't wait. The assistant Treasurer thinks we can wait until after those findings. People in my electorate who are victims, who are already in this debt spiral, deserve better from this government. The people who are now contemplating taking out a payday loan deserve better from this government. The Australian public deserve better. They deserve action where it is agreed that action needs to be taken. They need a government prepared to stand up to active lobbyists and say, 'No, not on our watch.' They need a government to stare down the lobbyists and say, 'We will act in the best interests of the Australian public and not in the best interests of those people who want to exploit them and make money from them.'

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