What a cop-out we've just heard from the member for Forde. There were all the weasel words in the world: 'We're looking into it. We are taking time.' I'm going to put on the record today, as the member for Forde leaves the chamber, that it has been 1,102 days since the government initiated a review into the shonky payday loans sector. I am not going to listen to one member of the government with any more excuses, because today is the day when you've got the chance to acknowledge that there are 650,000 Australians being exploited and being taken advantage of by this reckless and out-of-control payday loans industry.

I thank the member for Indi for her fierce advocacy on this and other issues, because she is in touch with her electorate, just as every member on this side of the chamber understands what's going on in the real world. This government sits by and does nothing. Despite repeated promises made by the government, we've just heard the member for Forde say: 'We know there are problems. We know there's an anomaly out in the industry.' He also said: 'We're going to do nothing. We're just going to sit by and talk about it.'

I know from talking to people in my community and right across Australia that they don't want a government bereft of ideas, just floating in the wind. They actually want to see some concrete outcomes. We know that the government has the evidence. The facts speak for themselves. Families are paying interest rates as high as 884 per cent for household goods. Fridges and washing machines, which would normally cost $350, end up costing almost $4,000 from loan sharks looking to rip off vulnerable Australian families. Some 1.8 million Australian families are now financially distressed. It is a number which has almost doubled under this government's watch. As we know, inequality is at an all-time high, with stagnating wages and people struggling to get by, which has resulted in 650,000 Australian households turning to payday loans just to make ends meet. The time has come to clamp down on this out-of-control payday loans industry and to stop the loan sharks taking advantage of vulnerable consumers.

It doesn't stop there. These shonky payday loan sharks prey upon the most vulnerable—with 40 per cent of loan holders unemployed and a quarter of loan holders receiving more than half of their income from Centrelink—yet the loan sharks go unchecked by this government. We know that back in 2015 the government established a committee to look into this issue. The recommendations were handed down in March the following year, with 24 recommendations on how we can clean up the industry. To even my surprise, the government announced soon after that they supported the vast majority of the recommendations in part or in full. The Minister for Revenue and Financial Services said at the time:

The final report has made a number of recommendations designed to increase financial inclusion and reduce the risk that consumers may be unable to meet their basic needs or may default on other necessary commitments.

Implementation of these recommendations will ensure that vulnerable consumers are afforded appropriate levels of consumer protection while continuing to access SACCs and leases.

Despite receiving this report almost two years ago and the government announcing they supported the recommendations, what's been done? Nothing. It has been 1,102 days—and counting. Here we are some two years later and consumers are still being ripped off and being taken advantage of, because of this hopeless government's inaction and disregard for those who have been financially driven into the ground.

I congratulate Gerard Brody and the Consumer Law Action Centre for their leadership to see the full, proper and original legislation brought forward. The action centre is just one of many organisations working hard at the coalface to address issues. They are joined by Good Shepherd Microfinance, St Vinnies, the Salvation Army, local churches and many other organisations working hard to tirelessly clean up the mess left by the loan sharks. I know this because I've seen it firsthand, with over 50 local community groups and organisations joining me for a payday crisis meeting in Goodna, in my local community, earlier this year. We heard story after story about how loan sharks go after vulnerable people, ripping them off every day.

There is something we can do to address this problem, but it requires the government to have some backbone—to have a spine—to get the job done. Members of the Labor Party, with the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, are committed to reforming this sector. We know that the parliamentary friends of payday lending under this government have tried to wind back the way the loan sharks operate and that the lobbyists who have seen this legislation are fighting it tooth and nail, but I am proud to say that Labor members have stood shoulder to shoulder with the community sector to make sure we see real reform. Time and time again we hear of victims being ripped off, so again I call on the government to bring forward legislation so that we can implement protection for consumers, not a watered-down version. Enough is enough. It's time for action.