Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What we just heard from the member for Forde was blah, blah, blah: no action whatsoever from this government, just a lot of waffle without anything in place. I rise to place on the record my strong support for the motion moved by the member for Perth and call on the government to take action on this reckless and out-of-control industry which is ruining the lives of residents not only in my electorate of Oxley but right across this country.

What we have is another case of this government burying its head in the sand and failing vulnerable Australians. We know that this is nothing new for the government, with its cuts to Medicare and schools, and the disastrous rollout of the NBN. It's what we have come to expect. But small amount credit contract providers, or payday loan providers, are ruining lives and running rife through our communities, and they must be reined in.

We've already heard how the government established a panel to review the small amount credit contract laws on 7 August 2015, and it provided its final report on 3 March 2016. Since then 18 months have gone by, and what have the government done? Zero, absolutely nothing—even though in the government's very own response to the review they agreed with the vast majority of the recommendations in part or in full. Yet they have continued to sit on their hands and let the industry run riot. Furthermore, the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services said at the time:

Implementation of these recommendations will ensure that vulnerable consumers are afforded appropriate levels of consumer protection while continuing to access SACCs and leases.

But they are yet to act—all talk, no action.

The government were even caught out this year when the minister claimed in an interview on Lateline on 28 February that Treasury was drafting legislation to implement the review's recommendations. However, just three days later, on 1 March, in response to questioning in Senate estimates by Senator Gallagher, Treasury's head of the Financial System Division confirmed that drafting had not commenced for a bill to enact the SACC review recommendations accepted by the government. I'm not sure what is worse, the outrageous practices that the payday loan sharks employ or the sheer incompetence of the government, who tell Australians they are doing something about it when in fact they are doing absolutely nothing. It's no wonder that we see the government slipping further and further behind with the Australian people, when the people have to put up with this rubbish.

It's absolutely clear that consumer credit contracts and consumer leases have been shown to cause unnecessary hardship to vulnerable consumers. A report commissioned by the Consumer Action Law Centre and compiled by Digital Finance Analytics in October 2015 identified payday-lending hotspots at postcode level. I was informed by the Consumer Action Law Centre earlier this year that my electorate of Oxley was one of the worst areas affected by payday lenders.

I take this issue seriously. I only wish the government would as well. These are vulnerable people who are being taken advantage of every single day, while this government sits back and refuses to act. Next year, they will be entering their fifth year of government.

These are lenders who charge a 20 per cent establishment fee and four per cent monthly fee on the amount loaned. These fees are converted to staggering annual percentage rates of between 112.1 per cent and 407 per cent. This is absolutely outrageous. Furthermore, payday lenders are not subject to the 48 per cent annual percentage rates caps like other lenders. They can charge almost 10 times as much as banks and other lenders—10 times as much as banks! And what's worse is that they take advantage of people who are already struggling financially, who simply cannot afford to make repayments, with many becoming caught in a harmful cycle of repeat borrowing.

The industry has been given long enough to prove they can self-regulate, but they have failed. Rather than responsible lending, the industry has repeatedly shown that it will lend money to pretty much anyone, regardless of whether they can afford repayments. ASIC has repeatedly taken action against big lenders for breaching responsible lending laws, including Cash Converters and Nimble, but we haven't seen any positive changes in the industry. That's why we are here today, calling on the government to immediately prepare legislation for consideration by the parliament to implement the SACC review recommendations and protect vulnerable consumers. Any further delay in introducing legislation for consideration by the parliament to implement the SACC review recommendations will result in unnecessary continuation of hardship to vulnerable consumers and their families.

Earlier this year, I was fortunate to meet with consumer groups who attended Parliament House, and I've met with church leaders, advocacy groups and welfare agencies in my electorate. They all ask me the same thing: 'When will this government get on and actually take action on these practices?' We've got to see action and it's got to happen now.

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