Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move Family First amendments (1), (3) and (7), on sheet 5785 revised, together:

(1)    Clause 4, page 2 (after line 25), after the definition of enforcement resolution, insert:

lending criteria means the criteria used by a provider of financing or refinancing to decide whether or not to provide financing or refinancing.

(3)    Clause 8, page 5 (line 11), omit “and (5)”, substitute “, (5) and (5A)”.

(7)    Clause 8, page 6 (after line 17), after subclause (5), insert:

Lending criteria

     (5A)    ABIP Limited must be satisfied that the lending criteria applied by ABIP Limited in assessing the application for financing or refinancing under the arrangement are no less prudent than the lending criteria for investment grade loans that the members of ABIP Limited (other than the Commonwealth) would apply when deciding whether to enter into such an arrangement in the ordinary course of their business.

These amendments concern legislating lending criteria. This is all about making sure that up to $28 billion from the public purse has good governance around it, and is not left it to regulations. To have the very key area of lending criteria determined not by this parliament but by regulation I think would be very dangerous. So the amendments Family First have put forward here are to legislate the lending criteria. It makes sense that the lending criteria are no less strict than those required by other commercially competitive banks. So that is what we are seeking to do with these amendments. It is prudent and it makes sense to do it as the parliament rather than leaving it to regulations, and that is what these particular amendments are about.