CHRIS BOWEN MP

SHADOW TREASURER

SHADOW MINISTER FOR SMALL BUSINESS

MEMBER FOR MCMAHON

MADELEINE KING MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR CONSUMER AFFAIRS

SHADOW MINISTER ASSISTING FOR RESOURCES

SHADOW MINISTER ASSISTING FOR SMALL BUSINESS

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR BRAND

In a crushing blow to thousands of victims of payday loans, Scott Morrison has appointed good mate and disgraced MP, Stuart Robert, to the Assistant Treasury ministry with responsibility for payday lending reforms.

Stuart Robert earlier this year campaigned inside the Liberal Party against attempts to introduce payday lending legislation to Parliament which would protect consumers from soaring interest rates and skyrocketing fees - leaving cash-strapped families at the mercy of unscrupulous lenders.

This campaign saw the now Prime Minister and Kelly O’Dwyer back down and drop the payday lending reform legislation and it hasn’t been heard of since.

Labor has introduced into the Parliament these very legislative reforms and the Liberal Party has refused to engage or support it.

The only ray of light on this issue is that the now Treasurer first kicked off the review that ended recommending these payday reforms in August 2015.

Josh Frydenberg should take these critical reforms off Stuart Robert and personally take responsibility for its urgent passage through the Parliament.

It has been three years since the Turnbull Government heralded a review into payday lending yet vulnerable consumers are still being thrown to the loan sharks.

The Liberal Party has refused to introduce its own payday lending legislation to Parliament which would protect consumers from soaring interest rates and skyrocketing fees, instead leaving cash-strapped families at the mercy of unscrupulous lenders.

Scott Morrison has protected these dodgy payday lenders and rent-to-buy scheme operators from answering to the Financial Services Royal Commission and continues to protect them from by refusing to introduce the legislation.

In the meantime, households are forced into payday loans and face skyrocketing fees and interest rates as high as around 200 per cent.

Labor calls on the Government to introduce this important piece of legislation so that 1.8 million financially distressed Australian households, who may be forced into a payday loan, are not ripped off.