Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for the question, his first supplementary question to me as Minister for Human Services. What I would say is that there is a small number of no-interest loan scheme arrangements and low-interest loan scheme arrangements, and also a number of emerging players—I suppose would be the term—in the market who are interested in participating far more than was the case previously. Consumer leases of the nature to which Senator Cameron has referred have for a number of people, particularly in very remote parts of Australia, often been their only recourse for obtaining goods of this nature. They are welfare recipients who do not have the sort of credit rating that enables them to participate in the full financial market, and that is a very important aspect of what we are currently considering and a very important aspect of the negotiations that we are undertaking with the authorities to which I referred earlier. (Time expired)