Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Hansard source

I'll be only very brief in responding to Senator Roberts, putting on record the government's opposition to this disallowance motion and just outlining some of the steps that have been taken.

The new Banking Code of Practice contains protections for small businesses and consumers over and above what's already in place and required by law. It's mandatory for all Australian Banking Association members to be signatories to the code. The code has been developed and assessed in a transparent way by ASIC, and, as part of the assessment, ASIC engaged with all relevant stakeholders, including consumer and small business groups, over a period of several months. ASIC has imposed specific conditions on its approval of the code and has the power to revoke its approval of the code at any time, including if it is not satisfied with compliance. Breaches of the code by signatories are reported to the Banking Code Compliance Committee, an independent code-monitoring body established to monitor and oversee compliance with the revised code.

Further, the government is taking action to strengthen the approval framework for industry codes, as a result of the findings of the financial services royal commission. In particular, the government will amend the law in order to provide ASIC with additional powers to approve and enforce industry code provisions. The government is committed to consult and introduce legislation by 30 June next year. The regime will provide that a breach of an enforceable code provision will constitute a breach of the law. The law will also be amended to provide for remedies that may follow such a breach. Once this regime is in place, the government will support ASIC and the ABA taking all necessary steps to have the provisions that govern the terms of the contract designated as an enforceable code provision.