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

by leave—At the request of the member for Oxley, I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

  (a) it has been more than four years since the Government established the independent Review of Small Amount Credit Contracts (SACC);

  (b) the review panel provided the final report to the Government on 3 March 2016, listing 24 recommendations relating to the SACC and consumer leasing laws;

  (c) the Government released its response to the report on 28 November 2016, in which it agreed with the vast majority of recommendations in part or in full;

  (d) the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services at the time said 'the implementation of these recommendations will ensure that vulnerable consumers are afforded appropriate levels of consumer protection while continuing to access SACCs and leases';

  (e) the Government released draft legislation on 23 October 2017, whereby the Minister for Small Business and now Deputy Prime Minister said that the 'Government will introduce legislation this year to implement the SACC and consumer lease reforms';

  (f) the Assistant Minister to the Treasurer pledged in May 2018 that SACC and consumer leasing laws would be progressed in 2018;

  (g) former Prime Minister Turnbull confirmed the Government supported the vast majority of recommendations from the independent Review of SACC and also pledged to introduce legislation enacting the recommendations in 2018;

  (h) the Assistant Treasurer in December 2018 also noted the importance of protecting vulnerable consumers from harmful financial practices, but would wait until the conclusion of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry;

  (i) the Royal Commission has now been completed, however there is still no legislation before the house to enact the 24 recommendations from the independent Review of SACC;

  (j) on 22 February 2019 the Senate Economics References Committee completed an inquiry into credit and financial services targeted at Australians at risk of financial hardship, which recommended that the National Consumer Credit Protection Amendment (Small Amount Credit Contract and Consumer Lease Reforms) Bill 2017 exposure draft released by Treasury be introduced, and passage facilitated by the Government; and

  (k) the Government has continuously broken its promises to legislate these important reforms; and

(2) calls on the Government to introduce legislation without any further delay so that Australians are given the protections they need from harmful pay day lending practices.

It is distressing to rise today to move this incredibly important motion. It's distressing because this is the 16th time that I have risen in the federal parliament to speak on the issue of small amount credit contracts legislation and on this government's failure to bring forward its own recommendation, from its own inquiry, to bring its own draft legislation into this place, despite all of the efforts on this side to get that happening. I have spoken 16 times in this place; the member for Oxley has raised this issue 22 times in this parliament.

A sorry saga has gone on. It is four years since this government called for an inquiry. It is three years since that inquiry handed down its recommendations and, despite changes of ministers responsible, we still have no action. Today, the member for Deakin is the minister responsible in this space. He has had one round at it and has failed to bring this into the parliament. As the minister responsible, he has a second chance now to bring this into the parliament. I rise because this is an issue in my electorate, but I believe it is an issue across the country, including in Deakin, the responsible minister's own electorate, where, in September last year, we set up a round table, spoke to the financial counsellors there and heard the same stories we've heard all around the country. Financial counsellors expressed their distress at having to support people in their negotiations with what can only be described as exploitative payday lending practices. This is something that this government can act on now.

What I want to focus on today are the things that this means. It's a sorry saga. There's a history a mile long. As recently as 30 August, the New Zealand and Australian ministers for consumer affairs met and said:

State and Territory Ministers acknowledged that urgent action is needed, particularly now that Small Amount Credit Contracts are being provided through cash loan machines and online.

This industry is steaming ahead while this government fails to act to curtail the exploitative nature of what some are practising, and we know that this is the case. We know that this is the case in my electorate, as I've raised before, but I have an update from WEstjustice, our local CLC. I've raised before that, when they did a survey at our local mental health facility, 25 per cent of the people there had payday loans. The update is that, in the period of three months from April to the end of June 2019, there was a minimum of five patients who ended up in a psychiatric ward. One of the five had five payday loans ongoing—from Cigno, Cash Converters, Cash Stop, Sunshine Loans and rent4keeps.

The information that we've been given is that this shouldn't be able to happen. You shouldn't be able to have multiple loans. But the practice is ongoing. This shows the lack of oversight of this system. These are people with a mental illness who are being loaned money at incredibly exorbitant interest rates, and we know what they look like. We know that some payday loans can attract an annual interest rate of between 112 and 407 per cent. This is an industry that needs regulation, and this government has draft legislation that would regulate this industry, but it has failed to bring it into this House. It has failed time and time again, regardless of the number of times we've called for it.

It's important in my electorate. In Werribee CBD, in the heart of my electorate, we have four shopfronts within 500 metres of one another where people are coming off the train on the way to do their shopping. We have people hanging out of doorways to catch customers, give them a cup of coffee, sign them up for another loan and send them on their way. We have case study after case study of people like Bill, who has an intellectual disability and is in receipt of the disability support pension. He has numerous small consumer leases for everyday items such as a bed and a vacuum cleaner.

This government needs to act. It is well and truly time, and we will continue to call it out until we see the draft legislation in this parliament.

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