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

There are several issues I'd like to raise tonight in the parliament that, as a result of this government's chaos, division and dysfunction, are having a huge impact on everyday Australians not only in my electorate of Oxley but right across this country. This includes what we've seen unfold over the last 24 hours with the government supporting Senator Hanson's motion in the Senate that 'it's okay to be white'. It was a motion that spent more than a month on the Notice Paper, giving the government ample time to consider both its contents and its consequences. In response to the widespread public condemnation and backlash, we've seen somewhat of a pathetic attempt at a clean-up of what the government supported less than 24 hours ago—a motion that included a phrase that everybody knows is used by white supremacists.

In The Courier-Mail, Dennis Atkins quite rightly posted 'Prime Minister's biggest tactical error in brief time in top job'. The respected journalist went on to say:

But when Hanson's motion hit the Senate floor the government sided with Hanson. The leader of the government in the Senate Mathias Cormann led his Senators to vote for the white supremacist language of the One Nation dog whistling filth.

They all lined up, including every Queensland LNP Senator—those people who will ask you for your votes in about six months. Do not reward them. By their actions they are supporters of the racist Hanson.

Just for your information the Queensland LNP Senators who supported blatant racism were Amanda Stocker, Barry O'Sullivan, James McGrath and Matt Canavan.

Shame on them all.

That was from The Courier Mail as of today.

I couldn't believe it when we saw the member for Petrie on Sky News before question time—I feel sorry for the member for Petrie; he's always one step behind everyone else—

Ms Henderson interjecting—

I'll take that interjection: he's not going to be here much longer, just like you, Member for Corangamite.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 18 : 27 to 18 : 34

When the member for Petrie went on Sky News before question time, he said about the 'it's okay to be white' motion: 'I believe the government has made a mistake. We should have let the issue die yesterday instead of backtracking.' So my question is: does the member for Petrie agree with the Leader of the Government in the Senate and the Prime Minister?

Or does he think that the motion moved by Senator Hanson—and you'll recall in his interview he said, 'Well, the reason why we supported the motion is because, if we didn't, Senator Hanson would go all around Queensland saying that we don't support white people.' Can you believe it! Members of parliament not only back in this motion—as an administrative error or as an act of laziness in refusing to look at the motions they are voting for—but then backbenchers actually say that the government shouldn't have walked away or backtracked from it. I'm extremely disappointed that the government did not join us in the House today to condemn this motion and go some way towards helping to fix the mess they have created.

This is a government that, when they are not focusing on themselves or worrying about Senator Hanson's white motions, are focused on the top end of town, attempting to give huge billion-dollar handouts to big businesses and big banks. But when they are not throwing around billions of dollars to big business, there are reports that won't go away that the government are still continuing with their push to throw more taxpayer money at installing e-voting. Whilst Labor is open to improving our voting systems, you have to ask yourself the question: why do this Prime Minister—the current Prime Minister, who temporarily holds this role—the Leader of the House and members of the government want to spend millions of dollars on a system that will save MPs allegedly a handful of minutes per day? The hypocrisy of this out-of-touch government never ceases to amaze me. Earlier this year we saw money being wasted on ridiculous projects time after time, and now we're seeing that the government are seriously looking at investing up to $8 million to $10 million on e-voting while they are cutting funding across the board for schools and hospitals so they don't have to turn up in the chamber to vote. I note the remarks of the Clerk on page 5 of the 2016 Standing Committee on Procedure report into electronic voting:

… the benefits expected to flow from the introduction of electronic voting appear relatively modest and would need to be considered in light of the cost of installation and maintenance …

Where is the cost-benefit analysis? Where is the sense in the Prime Minister and the Leader of the House persisting with this vanity project while cutting funding to schools and hospitals?

So today I ask the government a very clear question: what is happening with e-voting in the parliament? What is the full cost to the Australian taxpayer? What cost-benefit analysis has been done to justify this outrageous abuse of taxpayers' money on a vanity project, spent because members of this government don't want to spend time voting in the House of Representatives? They need to come clean with the Australian people about exactly what this project is going to cost. I ask members of the government today: how much is it going to cost the Australian taxpayer? There is complete silence from members of the government. They don't know. Nobody seems to know exactly what this weird project of the Leader of the House is going to cost the Australian taxpayer. We know that this is a government that is continually divided and is without a plan for Australia. There can be no more evidence of that than their being asleep at the wheel on payday lending.

The final issue I want to raise tonight is the growing crisis of the out-of-control payday loan sector and the loan sharks who continue to rip off Australian consumers. We on this side of the chamber know it was back on 7 August 2015 that the government established the Review of the Small Amount Credit Contract Laws. They knew then, as they know now, there are serious problems in this industry. Since that review there have been 1,155 days of inaction on clamping down on loan sharks. That is despite promise after promise from minister after minister that we would see legislation brought before the House to clean up the industry, with sensible reforms and protection for consumers.

We know that the consumers and customers of Australia are being ripped off by these shady characters. Introducing a cap on total payments on consumer leases is both a sensible change and a fair change to protect consumers and customers. The members of the government and the current minister may think it's okay for a consumer to pay up to $4,000 for a whitegood that should cost $350 or $400. Those opposite may think it's okay that small interest rates can be ripped off up to around 884 per cent. I don't think that's acceptable. I know the member for Lalor, the members of the government and the Leader of the Opposition agree that we must crack down on these loan sharks. We know that the current minister appears to have absolutely no interest in reform in this area.

Since the government first began this talk about reform, matters have only become much worse, with three million additional loans written that are worth an estimated $1.85 billion and with 800,000 households today holding a payday loan. This number has more than doubled in the past decade, including 150,000 new households signing up for payday loans since the government received that report a year and a half ago. The government doesn't even talk about this as an issue. They don't think it's a priority. They don't believe that consumers and customers getting ripped-off is somehow important. Well members of the opposition certainly do. Since 2016, 'around one-fifth of borrowers or around 332,000 households were new payday borrowers'. We also know that 'over a five-year period around 15 per cent of payday borrowers will get into a debt spiral which leads to events such as bankruptcy' and, 'on that basis, an additional 249,000 households have been allowed to enter a debt path which leads to an unfortunate end'.

We're seeing this minister caught up with not paying his internet bills, wanting to rip-off the taxpayer around $28,000 because he expected the taxpayer to pay his internet bill. Time and time again, when this minister was in charge of human services, when it came to people receiving welfare payments, he said, 'What these individuals don't appreciate is they are actually stealing from their neighbours.' This hypocrisy is staggering. I once again call on the government to bring forward the full and proper legislation so that we can stop the loan sharks and end the payday rip-off in this country.