Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We actually have seen that exposure draft legislation. We picked it up, word for word, and submitted it as a private member's bill, so they'll have an opportunity. They've done nothing. They've become captive to the payday lenders and the shonks out there. That's who they've become captive to. We're going to stand up for these people, so we've submitted a private member's bill. It's up to them to have a vote on it, but we know who they represent.

It has been an extraordinary week for the National Party in this place. We know that they've become captive to the payday lenders. We know that they've become the drivers of the 'Parliamentary Friends of Payday Lenders'. We've also seen in this extraordinary week how divided the coalition is in this place. We saw no better example of that than in the last hour, when the Deputy Prime Minister was under significant pressure. The Nationals did their best to defend him—it was pretty lame—but in the Senate did we see one Liberal stand up and defend him? Not one. This shows you the division between the Liberals and the Nationals when it comes to defending the Deputy Prime Minister.

This division also has consequences for people. The consequences are that people are being ripped off. They are being ripped off because this government won't progress the legislation that is going to crack down on the people doing this unscrupulous work. They try to dismiss the 'Parliamentary Friends of Payday Lenders', but George Christensen put his name to it. He was prepared to say that he was putting pressure on the government to back down. This is the same National Party that represents some of the poorest electorates in the country. I know that, in my own state of Queensland, Wide Bay is represented by a National. It shows you who they are prepared to defend—that is, big business, at the expense of those who can least afford it. We've seen continuing examples of George Christensen, the member for Dawson, dictating policy to the Liberal Party. It is something that is having a direct consequence on people in regional Queensland.

These predatory loan sharks and these shonky rent-to-buy traps have been exposed through the process, but the government is walking away from the reforms. Mums, dads and families have fallen victim to these unscrupulous operators and lenders and to those peddling the mercenary rent-to-buy schemes. That is the side that the Liberals and Nationals have chosen to be on over this week. They are either too distracted by their own internal problems or too paralysed by division—probably a mixture of both—to actually represent the people who need it.

I give full credit to my good friend the member for Oxley, Milton Dick, and the shadow minister and member for Perth, Tim Hammond, who have put maximum pressure on the government over that this week. This is so important. They've been working with community groups, church groups and other community organisations, to expose why this is actually an urgent proposition. The government's own report found some examples where families were paying over $3,000 for basic household goods that would usually cost just over $345. The response from those opposite is just to turn a blind eye—this isn't an important matter; there is no urgency.

Other examples include a person on Newstart buying goods valued at $1,550 for $5,668 and being told that the contract they were entering into was for one year; however, it was for two years. Furthermore, the customer thought that they were buying goods, but instead were only renting them. This is the type of behaviour that the government is letting continue.

Centrelink recipients have been shown to be ripped off by these unscrupulous practices as well. For instance, a freezer with a retail price of $319 cost one recipient over $1,000, with an equivalent interest rate of 372 per cent. One reported case had a consumer getting a loan from a rent-to-buy scheme for $350 to buy a washing machine, and it ended up costing the consumer over $3,500 to pay back because there was no tail end to it.

These are some of the practices that have been exposed through the government processes that led to the draft legislation, yet they continue to sit on it. So Labor will absolutely apply maximum pressure to the Liberals and the Nationals. We want them to deliver this legislation because this cannot continue. The Labor Party will absolutely stand up for those who are vulnerable to loan sharks and this sort of predatory behaviour.

Question agreed to.