Mr ROBERT (Fadden—Assistant Treasurer) (15:25): What a joke! Seriously, what a complete and utter farce! Those opposite seem to forget that it was this government that established a review into small account credit laws and whether those laws should be extended across to consumer leases, as the customer bases are similar. It is something those opposite failed to do—failed to consider it and failed to implement it. Everyone recognises that small account credit lenders and consumer lease providers play an important role in the economy by providing credit to customers who are vulnerable, with low and irregular incomes and perhaps poor credit histories, and in many instances are unable to access mainstream forms of finance. But this is not really about vulnerable workers, is it? This is a typical Labor stunt. Labor sit there and argue about undue delay— Mr Keogh interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Hogan ): The member for Burt is warned. Mr ROBERT: while at the same time stacking up more inquiries in the Senate. It's either one or the other. An instructive view of the history of this actually might help those opposite understand the issue. Ms Keay interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Braddon is warned. Mr ROBERT: For those who don't understand, small account credit contracts are loans for between 16 days and 12 months with a value of up to $2,000. There are more than 200 authorised SACC providers. Consumer leases, on the other hand, are leases for household goods, with terms greater than four months, excluding novated leases. As of the second half of 2017, there are approximately 500 lessors in the market, predominantly around four large firms. SACC consumers, on average, take out about 3½ SACC loans a year, and 30 per cent of households with a SACC consumer have one or more SACCs at a particular time. The history of this goes back some 20 years. It was the Liberal-National government back in the late nineties that put in place the construct of Centrepay. Centrepay provides a capacity for people to have bills and otherwise paid for out of their Centrelink benefit. There are nine service categories and, of course, one of them deals with the area of consumer leasing. Payday loans in themselves are not possible through Centrepay. Centrepay today puts out $2.6 billion worth of bills that are paid for vulnerable Australians. It's quite extraordinary. There are 646,000 consumers using Centrepay to assist with paying bills and invoices over nine different sectors. In 2009 the National Consumer Credit Protection Act came in and the states ceded their authority. In 2010 those opposite, to their credit, limited consumers with over 50 per cent of their income from Centrelink to no more than 20 per cent gross for small account credit contracts. Nothing in consumer leasing was done by those opposite at the time. In 2013, again to the credit of those opposite and in response to COAG, the small account credit interest rate was limited to four per cent per month, or 48 per cent across the board, with a 20 per cent establishment fee. Again it was for SACC, and, again, there was nothing in the consumer lease space. Those opposite had numerous opportunities in previous governments to deal with the consumer lease space and did nothing—nothing! It is this government that has stepped up with a review to understand the issue of consumer leasing and how it works. Mr Keogh interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Burt will remove himself under 94(a). The member for Burt then left the chamber. Mr ROBERT: In 2013 there was a review into Centrepay, which continued through to 2015. It was put in place by the Minister for Human Services, and the current Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister Payne, and I were the ones who finished the review and implemented it. We were the ones—it was this government—that knocked off all the dodgy providers within Centrepay. Ms Madeleine King interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Brand is warned. Mr ROBERT: It was this government that knocked off hundreds and hundreds of the loan sharks that were going after Aboriginal communities, selling insurance products or products that were into funeral insurance to 10-year-old Aboriginal kids. The rorts were outrageous. It was this government and human services ministers on this side who knocked all of those dodgy providers out. We see, as of now, about 14,815 Centrepay businesses. Back then, the number was about a thousand higher. But it was this government that knocked all of those providers out. It was this government, in August 2015, with the then Assistant Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, that announced a review of the small-amount credit contract laws. Consumer leases were also considered as part of that review, building on what we had done in Centrepay. It was this government that decided to look at the issue of consumer leasing following the inactivity of those opposite. A report was tabled in March '16, with a final report in April '16. Public consultation then followed. On 28 November '16, the government responded to the review, supporting the vast majority of the review's recommendations, including a whole bunch of stuff to make things a lot better and easier for those on low incomes. Twelve months ago, the government released an exposure draft bill to implement the government's response: removing the ability of SACC providers to charge monthly fees; providing lessors, creditors and assistance providers with the undertaking of door-to-door selling of leases at residential homes; introducing a broad range of anti-avoidance protections to prevent SACC loan and consumer lease providers from circumventing the rules; and strengthening penalties to increase incentives for SACC providers and lessors to comply with the law. During the consultation phase for the draft legislation, the Treasury received over 140,000 submissions, over 100 of which were from individual franchisees of consumer lease providers. The government has been considering the draft legislation in light of feedback during this consultation process. It would have been helpful if those opposite had also considered some of the feedback after the draft legislation came out rather than just taking the draft legislation as a stunt and putting it into the House. The whole point of consultation is to consult and listen and update legislation based on broad community feedback—something those opposite seem to have missed, as they missed six years of dealing with the issue of consumer leasing. This government doesn't rush to failure like those opposite. This government actually sits down, it consults, it looks at issues widely and then it implements sensible policy. At the same time, the government has noted the comments of Commissioner Hayne regarding the consumer credit industry, in the interim report of the royal commission into misconduct in the banking, super and financial services industry. In particular, Commissioner Hayne has made some interesting observations regarding consumer credit and has asked a range of policy questions, the answers to which may have an impact on the approach government takes in this space. The government notes that the seventh round of the royal commission's public hearings will focus on key policy questions arising from the first six rounds, upon which the interim report is based. The government will consider the extent to which the issues raised through the next round of hearings of the royal commission will impact on the drafting of the final SACC legislation. On the one hand, those opposite want us to rush to failure and move now. On the other hand, those opposite want us to consider, sensibly and diligently, the outcomes of the royal commission. Well, which one is it? Should we sensibly consider the outcomes of the royal commission as they pertain to the SACC legislation or should we, like those opposite, like a bunch of lemmings towards a cliff, rush towards unintended failure? Well, this government doesn't do that. This government carefully considers the issues of the day, and we will carefully consider what the royal commission has got to say in this space. We will carefully consider the policy options at the next range of hearings and then the government will act. I also note that Labor's provided notice of its intention to move a motion in the Senate referring the issue of payday lending and consumer leasing for a whole new inquiry by a Labor chaired Senate Economics Reference Committee. Not content to wait and see what the royal commission's going to do, not content to wait and see what the policy outcome hearings are going to be—oh, no; Labor knows better than everyone else and is launching itself into a new inquiry, perhaps embarrassed by six years of inaction when it comes to consumer leasing and doing nothing. Now, at the 11th hour, Labor is rushing into an inquiry to work out what it actually believes. We'll sit and wait for the royal commission's advice. We will look at the policy hearings and then we will move forward and we will act sensibly, because that is what sensible governments do.