Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate the opportunity to speak in relation to the Finance portfolio and the budget. In the course of my work as a member of the House Economics Committee, together with the member for Hawke and the member for Forde, I have had cause to seek the advice of many people and organisations, both within and outside government. I would like to reflect on some of those meetings and the importance of having that valuable input from people working at the coalface.

The Economics Committee, as part of its ambit, reviews the RBA, APRA, the ACCC and ASIC. A large number of organisations interface with one or more of those bodies.

I have met, a few times now, with people like Alan Kirkland, the CEO of Choice. Some of us only turn to Choice for a tip when we're buying a new washing machine, but the organisation is a fierce advocate across a broad sweep of consumer issues, including credit traps, personal data protection, the regulation of tech platforms and, saliently, the question of market competition, into which the committee has an ongoing inquiry.

Recently I met with Bruce Billson, the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, who was previously the Liberal member for Dunkley and a minister, including the Minister for Small Business. Apart from his role ministering to small business owners, Mr Billson—and his organisation, too—is active in advocacy, with submissions across areas including bank closures, digital platforms and payment systems. Most recently, Mr Billson made a submission to the inquiry into promoting economic dynamism, competition and business formation. His bird's-eye view on the effect of the budget and of regulation on business is an invaluable input.

Earlier on in the term, I was fortunate to meet with Rita Battaglin of Financial Counselling Australia. It was important to have distilled for me the way in which difficult and different financial pressures are affecting people in their day-to-day lives. My own electorate of Hasluck has 53 per cent of residents paying a mortgage and a further 18 per cent renting, so any increase in financial pressure will quickly be felt by my constituents. Ms Battaglin was able to inform me of the difficulties caused by the lack of regulation in the buy-now pay-later space, among other matters, and has invited me to sit in with a financial counsellor in their workplace in Hasluck—an offer I'm scheduled to take up very soon.

Importantly, I have met with the unions—the SDA, the TWU, the AWU, the CPSU and others. If a union delegation wants to meet with me, I am there, and, if it's been too long, I get in touch with them. Unionists work every day with the difficulties faced by their members, across many industries. They know firsthand the needs and obstacles governments can assist with. There is power in the union, and there is also a wealth of experience. It is a great boon to the ALP, and I would recommend to all members in this place to have their door open to union representatives.

The reason I started by referring to a few of the outside organisations that I have taken advice from—and there have been many others—is that, when we seek to govern for people, we need to know what their needs are. We can't pretend to know. And we can't just read a book and adopt some flaky ideological stance. We are here to govern for Australians, and we must value the living conduits to their daily lives. Armed with these views, from people who are all working in different spaces, I'm better able to fulfil my role on the committee and to consider legislation as it comes to the House.

The government, too, engaged, listened and, both before and through the budget, has embarked on an impressive course of financial reform. Just yesterday was the announcement that the government will adopt most of the recommendations in the quality-of-advice review. This will mean better advice going forward and is particularly important as we see the average super amounts people retire with increasing over the next decade or so.

In the budget there is substantial provision for combating online scams, which are set to become only more insidious. There is $58 million to establish the National Anti-Scam Centre with the ACCC, $17.6 million and $4.4 million ongoing for ASIC to address phishing and investment scams, and $10.9 million and $2.2 million ongoing to establish an SMS ID register. I was very grateful to the minister for joining me, together with the member for Swan and Senator Fatima Payman, in Forrestfield, where we had a forum of over 100 people very concerned about this. Listening to, understanding and responding to those issues is exactly what this government is delivering for Australians.

We've also introduced payday super. I met with a number of representatives of the superannuation industry in recent months and, as a small business owner myself, I'm happy to support this long-overdue change. This change will take effect from 1 July 2026, allowing ample time to adjust and therefore reduce noncompliance. Again, the Australian government is listening and responding, and we're grateful for the work that you're all doing.

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