Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I have just a few more questions for the minister, and I thank him for his answers. Feedback from both industry and consumer advocates on the draft bill pointed to the complexity arising from the lack of clear liability rules and an apportionment mechanism for situations where multiple entities across different sectors are involved in a scam. How have these concerns been addressed in the final bill? Will AFCA have carte blanche to make decisions on apportionment of liability for each regulated entity? If regulated entities disagree with an apportionment decision, will they be able to litigate to overturn that decision? Do you anticipate these disputes will delay consumer redress? Have you estimated the potential costs and delays arising from litigation relating to these disputes, including for scam victims?

In addition, I note that the Competition and Consumer Act, at section 51AE, already has a regulation-making power for the minister to prescribe enforceable mandatory codes to provide a set of rules or minimum standards for an industry, including the relationship between industry participants and their customers. Was it open to the government to use this existing power to make codes without having to enact new primary legislation? Could using the existing code-making power have meant mandatory codes were developed and made earlier than the 31 months and counting of the Albanese government that we have been waiting for the Scams Prevention Code? If it was open to the minister, why did you choose to delay action on scams by coming up with a much more complex approach? This is an approach which has been criticised by most stakeholders, who have asked for this framework to be focused on the codes. Did you choose this approach so that you could draw this out and have another announcement?

You have previously mentioned that you had difficulty getting legislation drafted. We are still waiting for these industry codes. When would we see these draft codes now? I do note you just addressed that—you're saying the department wouldn't start until this legislation was done—but how long would you expect the draft codes to take from here?

I have some questions about concerns raised about the draft bill and how they've been addressed in this final bill. I make the point again that the government took a long time to come up with this and then ran a shortened three-week consultation period on the draft legislation. This bill was then turned around for introduction just four weeks later, with little of the consultation feedback incorporated as a result. It is important legislation that will impact all Australians. These aren't minor amendments that should be rammed through without scrutiny and without the bare minimum of consultation. Most regulated sector stakeholders, including the ABA and the Communications Alliance, have raised concerns about the double liability issues that arise as a result of the private right of action set out in section 58 of the bill.

Given the whole-of-ecosystem external dispute resolution and the substantial civil penalties, is this additional private right of action necessary? Does the minister anticipate it will be useful or accessible for individual consumers? Many stakeholders, including the Customer Owned Banking Association, have raised concerns about the breadth of actual scam intelligence that might need to be reported and the regulatory burden that this would create. COBA have said: 'The sheer volume of data and information being contemplated by this definition means that what is expected from the obligations may not be reasonably achievable.' So have any changes been made to the final bill to address these concerns? If so, what are these? How will the burden of this data reporting be minimised?

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