Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Friday, this girl from the west travelled over to Ringwood East with the member for Oxley and with the shadow minister, the member for Brand, to attend a roundtable about payday lending and the impacts that loan sharks are having on community members in the east of Melbourne, getting caught up in a debt spiral. We've heard from the member for Brand today about how appalling this government's track record is in this space. They started well. They started well in government; they were going to take action. But, no, they haven't taken any action. We ventured to the current member for Deakin's seat to talk to his local people and hear from the financial counsellors over on that side of town about the dreadful impacts it's having in his community as well as ours. The current member for Deakin failed to act to protect vulnerable citizens across Australia. The member for Fadden now has the portfolio, and I call on him to take action, bring the legislation into this parliament and let us deal with these sharks here and now.

I want to give a shout-out to the Labor candidate, Shireen Morris, who joined us on Friday and who's featured today in TheSydney Morning Herald and The Age with an op-ed on exactly this issue. There's someone out in Deakin who cares about the vulnerable people in that community. Her name's Shireen Morris. Remember it. I think you'll hear a bit from her. (Time expired)