The member for Mackellar doesn't need to be in this place. He's on a margin of 15.74 per cent, which in the new paradigm is an ultramarginal Labor seat. So I'd get out doorknocking, if I were you, and start trying to get people to vote Liberal in Double Bay and Neutral Bay, before you come in here and lecture anyone about that.
I just want to pick up where the member for Mackellar finished. He said their government are not going to do anything; it was Labor legislation. I will tell you who was going to do something about this. They're all listening now. I've got a letter in my hand. In the days before Malcolm Turnbull was knifed by all of those opposite, he wrote to me: 'Dear Milton, legislation will be progressed this year, with the changes applying 12 months after its passage.' They've gone silent now, haven't they? A big talk by the member for Mackellar and the friends of the loan sharks, but it's in black and white from Malcolm Turnbull, promising the people of Australia that legislation would take place to crack down on payday lending.
Well, what happened? What happened? No wonder the people of Wentworth rejected the Liberal Party with the largest swing in Australia's history. This Prime Minister turns around and says: 'It wasn't that bad. We almost won it.' That's their excuse—no apology to the people of Wentworth, no apology to the people of Watsons Bay, Neutral Bay or Double Bay. If that's not your base, I don't know what your base is—through you, Mr Deputy Speaker.
We know that it's been 1,173 days. I know that the member for Mackellar sits on the leafy North Shore. He doesn't care at all.
An honourable member interjecting—
Mr DICK: The Northern Beaches—my apologies. He knows that, while they're sipping champagne, clinking their glasses, at the yacht club, they're making fun of those people and—what did he say?—the unintended consequences of this sort of legislation.
Well, I can tell you what the unintended consequence of not taking action on payday loans is. It's the pensioner in my electorate who was conned and tricked into buying an iPad that cost him $800 but ended up costing him $3,000. It was the mother of three who was conned and tricked into buying a fridge that cost her $4,000, which should have cost her $475. And it was the pensioner who was ripped off, who needed a car repair but was charged $5,000 for a $1,000 car repair. The excess, the greed, the rip-offs—and those opposite have the hide to talk about people taking control of their lives. If I were the member for Mackellar, I'd slink out of this chamber too.
Mr Falinski interjecting—
Mr DICK: Well, come back and listen to what I've got to say. You're going to learn something.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Hogan ): The member for Oxley will address the chair.
Mr DICK: Through you, Mr Deputy Speaker, I say to the member for Mackellar: listen to the words on this side of the chamber. He is going to learn something.
We know that we've had four ministers dealing with this. We know that the now Deputy Prime Minister promised to introduce your legislation. We know that the Assistant Treasurer took a bill to the cabinet that was endorsed by your cabinet until those—
Mr Falinski: How do you know that?
Mr DICK: Because the minister said so. The now Deputy Prime Minister promised:
The Government will introduce legislation this year—
2017—
to implement the SACC and consumer lease reforms.
Then the merry-go-round continued with the member for Deakin. But, time and time again, we know it all comes back to the former member for Wentworth, who promised in writing that this legislation would be progressed into this House. Well—through you, Mr Deputy Speaker, to all of those right-wing ideologues opposite—we've got two weeks to go in this parliament, two weeks so that consumers can be protected in Australia, two weeks to ensure that consumers aren't being ripped off by the loan sharks.
My electorate knows and every single Labor member knows that the only people who can be trusted with proper consumer affairs are on this side of the chamber. Time and time again, we've seen that side of the chamber, the government, siding with big banks. Now today it's been revealed that they're siding with loan sharks. Well, we won't stop this fight. We know that the over 1,172 days are too many days. All it will take is a Shorten Labor government to make sure consumers are protected in this country.
