Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wentworth for the question and for her ongoing engagement on this issue. I will also take the opportunity to thank my colleague the Minister for Communications on the work that we have been doing together, a team effort to ensure that we keep Australians' money safe and their information safe. Earlier today I introduced the new Scams Prevention Framework Bill 2024 into the parliament. When legislated, it will ensure that Australia is the toughest country in the world for these multinational crime syndicates that the member for Wentworth refers to to make a dollar. That is our objective—to ensure Australians are kept safe and that this becomes the toughest country in the world for the criminals to prey upon Australians.

I am asked about the approach we have taken and how it differs from other approaches. I have to say that it is in this particular regard that we differ from the approach of our predecessors. The approach under our predecessors was, if you get scammed, you are a mug and you are on your own. They were soft on financial crime, they were soft on financial criminals and, as a result, scam losses on their watch doubled and then doubled and then doubled again.

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