Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In April, the Kleenmaid company went into voluntary administration and subsequently into liquidation with debts of over $100 million. This includes $27 million owed to customers who, in many cases, had paid in full for Kleenmaid products. This corporate failure has inflicted financial pain on thousands of ordinary Australians, including a number in my electorate. One of my constituents, a hardworking cleaner, paid $21,520 to Kleenmaid during 2008 for appliances to complete the home she is building. Now she has a house that is marked by gaping holes in which appliances were to be fitted. Those appliances will never be delivered.

The collapse of Kleenmaid includes elements of corporate disintegration with which we have become sadly familiar. It is a company that ignored the writing on the wall when the writing was 10 feet high. It is a company whose directors showed an apparently reckless disregard for its employees, customers and creditors. And it is a company whose directors showed a painstaking regard for their own financial interests. There is evidence to suggest that Kleenmaid not only traded while insolvent but also kept relevant information from customers and creditors. Further, it sought new ways to extract funds from existing customers right to the very brink of collapse.

I urge the liquidator and the regulatory authorities to explore every avenue of redress with respect to this company, its directors and related entities in order to do justice and return as much money as possible to household creditors. They presently find themselves standing behind secured creditors, including a company called England and Young Holdings Pty Ltd, which is co-directed by Kleenmaid director, Andrew young.