Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting on Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you again for the question and the supplementary question. Yes, we made a number of specific commitments making sure that when customers pay down their credit card it is applied first to the part of the credit card debt that is accruing the biggest interest not the least interest, ensuring credit card customers cannot exceed their credit limit unless they have already expressly agreed they want to be able to, and prohibiting credit card companies from offering higher credit limits without the cardholder’s request. We intend to go further with our overhaul and provision of tougher new consumer credit laws in respect of financial services. As I was about to say before I was interrupted, we have delivered on phase 1 of the consumer credit reforms. In phase 2 we will consider the need for the regulation of lending to small businesses and improvements to the regulation of credit cards. The reforms will be delivered in two tranches. The most urgent projects will be completed in mid-2011 and the more in-depth— (Time expired)