Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I rise to offer the coalition's in principle support for the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics recommendations as outlined in the Advisory report on the National Consumer Credit Protection Amendment (Home Loans and Credit Cards) Bill 2011, which is before the House today. In relation to elements of what the government is seeking to do through the bill that the committee undertook to review is the fact that some substantial detail is yet to be resolved, insofar as that detail will be contained within regulations and not within the bill itself. In broad terms, it is fair to say that coalition members of the committee are happy to support the thrust of this legislation. We are happy to support the thrust of what was attempted to be achieved. One important point I would make is that I give credit to the Labor Party for changing their position on is the implementation date of these reforms. It was always the concern of coalition members that a situation would arise whereby there would not be sufficient time for the necessary reforms as a result of this legislation to be undertaken and imple­mented. In this respect, the move to effectively extend the starting date was, we thought, a positive measure, and so we are certainly supportive of that.

In broader terms, we give in principle support for the bill's amendment to the National Consumer Credit Protection Act to establish a number of key features in the new act. We are always looking for ways to support positive policy. This is an opposition that wants to work constructively for the betterment of Australian society. Where downfalls exist, as they currently do, we support the provisions contained in the bill that address them—such as, the requirement for lenders to produce a key fact sheet for standard home loans; the requirement for lenders to produce a key fact sheet for credit card contracts, to provide for some regulation regarding the circumstances in which borrowers can exceed credit limits on their cards and to prohibit fees being charged by a credit provider where they do so and the consumer has opted to have a higher supplementary buffer. Likewise, we support the development of a hierarchy for payments made under credit card contracts and the requirement for credit providers to allocate repayments by the borrower to that part of the balance of their credit card in which they charge the highest interest rate. These are all worthy initiatives.

That notwithstanding, in speaking as a member of this House, I had concerns about some of the regulation as it was predicted to be incorporated within regulations about credit providers making so-called unsolicited invitations and borrowers being encouraged to increase their credit card limits. These remain points of some concern for me. But, as I said, we did not want some of these fringe issues to detract from the overall thrust of the bill. In that sense, the coalition is happy to support the report of the committee. We do think that, like a lot of the groundwork that was undertaken by the former coalition government on credit regulation and making sure that consumers were empowered and informed when it comes to credit decisions, this report is another step on that journey.

I mirror the sentiments of the chair of the committee with respect to two aspects as well. The first is to thank the committee for their hard work. I know at times the committee secretariat find the ebb and flow of some of the dissenting or non-dissenting and majority reports inconsistent and perhaps difficult to deal with. That notwithstanding, we on this side of the House are certainly grateful for their principled work and for the fact that they continue to press on with this work. The second element is with respect to the chair's observation that the secretariat also require some additional resources given their very extensive workload. For a committee such as the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, it is perhaps not unsurprising that there has been a marked increase in the amount of regulation and legislation that it will be looking at and reviewing as a very active House of Representatives committee. It is one of the main committees, indeed, for this parliament. Economics is, of course, at the forefront of what the Australian government should be dealing with. I think it is absolutely warranted for a committee like the House of Representatives economics committee to ensure that its secretariat is fully able and equipped to deal with all the necessary trials, tribulations and challenges that go with a very active and heavy workload of such committee. I thank the House for its time.

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