GOVERNMENT’S FORM ON PAYDAY LENDING GOES FROM BAD TO WORSE TO WORSE AGAIN

Today the Turnbull Government once again demonstrated their utter contempt for vulnerable payday lending consumers, when not a single Liberal or National MP bothered to turn up to debate the SACC Reform Bill

 

The National Consumer Credit Protection Amendment (Small Amount Credit Contract and Consumer Lease Reforms) Bill 2018 was debated this afternoon in the Federation Chamber. Labor MPs Luke Gosling, Jim Chalmers, Susan Lamb and Joanne Ryan spoke to the bill, but not a single Government MP spoke in the debate.

 

The bill is a word-for-word copy of the Government’s own exposure draft of legislation to reform payday loans and rent-to-buy schemes, which they released last year. Labor introduced the Government’s own bill as a private member’s bill in February after it became clear the Government wanted to sweep it under the rug.

 

It beggars belief that after so much ink has been spilt, over so many public service hours, that the Liberals cannot even send one MP to back in their own reforms, which they have already committed to.

 

The silence from the Liberals on payday lending reforms is deafening.

 

We can only conclude that the Michael Sukkar is rowing away as fast as he can from the commitments that Kelly O’Dwyer and Michael McCormack made on the SACC Reforms when they had portfolio responsibility for them.

 

The Government commissioned the SACC Review in 2015, and it reported in March 2016. The Government announced its policy response in November 2016 and indicated several times during 2017 that it would introduce legislation that year.

 

Since the December 2017 reshuffle, when responsibility for the SACC Reforms fell to Michael Sukkar, a group of Liberal and National backbenchers, known as the ‘Parliamentary Friends of Payday Lending’ has emerged with the view to burying the reforms.

 

News reports over the weekend have revealed that, as well as scuttling the SACC Reforms, the Parliamentary Friends of Payday Lending are also protecting payday lenders from the banking royal commission.