Tim Hammond (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What do we see here? A waste, as I hear my good friend and comrade, the member for Brand, say. I am happy to answer the question, assuming that it was put as a question and not a statement. I will take it either way. What a waste indeed. Let us talk about waste. Let us talk about waste in terms of inactivity after the review process. I tell you what: if there is one consistent theme that comes from this government, that is morbid inertia following review. As they say in the classics, let me count the ways.

Let us start with the small amount credit contract review. That was an incredibly important review undertaken months, months and months ago into an incredibly important issue. It is the way in which payday lending and consumer leases, commonly known as rent-to-buy leases, impact upon vulnerable people in our community. Those vulnerable people take advantage of what is being sold to them—often on terms they do not really understand—and become hopelessly entrapped in more and more debt to the point where they just cannot get themselves out of a hopeless cycle of debt. It mounts up day after day, having taken goods and services under terms and conditions that they just simply had no idea about. It was a very important review.

Where has a small amount credit contract review actually taken us? It has taken us to a whole number of recommendations that had bipartisan support. The community quite rightly cries out for an environment where both sides of politics reach across the table, join arms and join forces in relation to subject matter that can actually result in legislation that has bipartisan support. The small amount credit contract review is that review. But it is stunted, it is stagnant and it is going nowhere under this government. Legislation that was promised to us before the end of the financial year has not seen the light of day. In the other place, Senator Gallagher revealed in Senate estimates, after some torrid and forensic questioning of the department, that pen has not even been put to paper in relation to this vital legislation that could actually make a difference to the lives of thousands and thousands of vulnerable consumers in our country.

We have also seen it with the Conde review into MPs' entitlements, where it has taken over 12 months for this government to respond. Even then, with a half-hearted ban on the life gold pass, we are only starting to see some traction now, some of which does not even affect the Prime Minister's parliamentary colleagues. We see it again in relation to the Productivity Commission review and the review into the Australian Consumer Law. In my portfolio, we see a raft of non-contentious, practical and pragmatic recommendations that we are told are under consideration by this government, but I would not hold my breath for one second in terms of seeing this talk converted into action.

On reflecting on the government's current review inertia, I try to find a way to adequately capture the sorry state of affairs that we see ourselves in right now. I will not pretend to be so witty, clever or intelligent as to put it better than it has been put before. I find myself reaching into classic song lyrics. I reach into the song lyrics of the King; no-one less than the King. That is not Queen, but the King:

A little less conversation, a little more action …

Let me continue: if you thought just one line was apt, it actually gets better as you dig down into the lyrics.

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