Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of this motion before the Chamber today. I say to the member for Higgins, before she leaves the chamber, that she is gravely mistaken to think that this is somehow a concern only of Labor members here. There is not a single advocate working in the sector trying to support people impacted by these dodgy payday lending groups out there who thinks that this government is doing anywhere near enough in this space. We are now more than 1,000 days down the track since the government received the report of the review it commissioned. This coalition government, under various leaders, has said that it accepts the recommendations of the small amount credit contract review, the SACC review. Consumer advocacy organisations from right across the country, including my own area of Newcastle and the Hunter, celebrated that. But they are at their wits' end to understand why this government has perpetually missed its opportunity to do anything meaningful in this space. We have a long record now of this government continually breaking its promise to legislate these important reforms.

It is little wonder that last week—I think it was—the consumer advocates in this area came together to kick off a new campaign and form the Stop the Debt Trap Alliance. A petition has now been circulated by these groups. This isn't some spurious Labor campaign being run out here. These are serious players working in the space of providing financial counselling and assistance to people who are in extreme financial hardship and devastating personal circumstances. We're talking about organisations like Anglicare, CHOICE—can there be a more reputable consumer advocacy group in Australia than CHOICE?—the Consumer Action Legal Centre, the consumer credit legal centres, Good Shepherd, MoneyMob, the NILS people, the Salvation Army, and the list goes on and on. It is every serious player who is deeply committed to seeing some action from this government to pass the findings of the review—which it says it's accepted—to bring them into law. This petition calls on the government:

It's time the government took decisive action to protect hardworking Australians from being gouged by reckless lenders.

These people know. I have visited the Samaritans financial counselling service in my electorate on a number of occasions, and I pay tribute to Mr Graham Smith, who works for the Samaritans in that space. Graham is also one of the leaders of the Financial Counsellors Association of New South Wales. There are social consequences of these dodgy payday lenders out in our community, with their instant cash machines set up in tobacco stores and shopping centres across my electorate, my neighbouring electorates and many others. We have seen the number of short-term loans from these guys absolutely skyrocketing. Newcastle is now in the top 10 hotspot areas across this country for these dodgy payday operators. It is little wonder that I and many of my colleagues here are concerned about what this means, because we see the social impact of that in our communities now. We see people taking out these loans, often to purchase household goods. The people are on fixed low incomes. The goods might be valued at $9,000, and they're paying $17,000. This is not a situation that can be continued. This government needs to bite the bullet. It needs to step up. It's time for action. The time for talk is long, long gone.

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