Curran Clare: Credit Contracts and Financial Services Law Reform Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCurran Clare: Credit Contracts and Financial Services Law Reform Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 17 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13415. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South): This is one of those opportunities when every single party represented in this Parliament is speaking with one voice about the problem that we are addressing here and the need to address it. There may be differences in degree but it seems to me that this is one of those opportunities for a select committee to take a framework piece of legislation that sets out some of the measures that are required to address this terrible problem that exists in our country and to actually turn it into a better law and make it a piece of legislation that every single party in this House can be proud of where we know that there will be serious measures that will stop this terrible practice of irresponsible lending and stop the terrible circle of debt that so many people in our country are finding themselves in and that will put in place measures that will actually put some accountability back where it is required.The regulatory impact statement on this bill the Credit Contracts and Financial Services Law Reform Bill estimated—and this was back in 2011 so it is 2 years old—that there were almost 131000 New Zealanders who had accessed credit from third-tier lenders in the past 24 months and 218 companies that had been identified as third-tier lenders. But what the regulatory impact statement also acknowledged was that it was very difficult to map the extent of this problem. It is our belief that this does not represent the full extent and that this is really the tip of the iceberg for the high number of people who are finding themselves in terrible circumstances.I want to acknowledge the work that has been done on this issue since 2010 and possibly even before that by my colleague Carol Beaumont who brought forward a member’s bill that was voted down who has campaigned relentlessly around this issue and who has I think contributed to the fact that this legislation has actually finally appeared before the House today. I think as we have heard from almost every speakerthat it has taken a long time to get here. It is not right yet. I describe it as framework legislation. Some of the pieces are in place to address this issue but certainly not all of them. There is certainly a lot more to be done.I note some of my colleagues across the House today have talked about the kinds of people whom we are talking about. These are people predominantly on low incomes but make no mistake that these are not just people on fixed incomes people whom we describe as being on welfare or people who are on superannuation; these are people who are working people as well. They are being described as the working poor. Thousands and thousands—possibly hundreds of thousands—of people are finding themselves unable to pay their weekly bills their monthly bills their electricity bills their food bills their petrol bills their doctor’s bills and their bills for their children. They are finding themselves having to go and get loans where they may not otherwise be able to get loans and then finding themselves in that spiralling circling debt black hole which is also described as the black dog that so many people are getting themselves into. You do not just have to ask the budget advisers. You can ask Catholic Social Services the Anglican Family Care the Methodist Mission Presbyterian Support the Salvation Army and any social agencies in any town or city in this country and you will hear terrible stories about some of the situations that people are finding themselves in.So will this bill make a difference? Well it will make a difference if through the select committee process there is a large number of submissions from organisations and from people who know and who are at the coalface of these situations and it will make a difference if they are listened to—if they are listened to. When you think about what is going to deter the sharks you have got to be thinking about a wider range of measures than are included in this bill. In Labour’s policy going into the last election we had a comprehensive policy that started to really address what was needed. We talked about exorbitant interest rates which is not mentioned in this bill—yes there are the responsible lending provisions the advertising and promotion the disclosure by lenders of the component costs the prohibiting of use of certain items as security and repossession issues. It has to be a comprehensive piece of legislation to make a real difference.Anyone who sits on the Commerce Committee would know that there has been a series of pieces of legislation to try to deal with responsible lending right across the board and with practices that are in place whether it is people who are being caught at the investment end of the market the mum and dad investors who are being caught with the financial collapses and the terrible practices that have been going on at that end—well this is the end of real hardship and real need. Therefore a comprehensive piece of legislation is required here as well. I would argue and I am sure that there will be many many submitters who argue this too that it has to also look at the alternatives in place for people from these kinds of lending practices.One of the other things that was done by my colleague Carol Beaumont in collaboration with my other colleague Jacinda Ardern was to announce a social lending policy which really is the other side of this. It is what is absolutely required in order for us to get to the point where people are able to get themselves out of these situations in a way that is responsible where they can pay the money back in incremental ways but perhaps where they are on very low interest or zero interest rates. That is one of the core measures that is required. There is a policy that is in place.I note that in the Budget this year the Minister for Social Development Paula Bennett said that officials would work with the private sector and the non-governmental organisations to identify options around these sorts of measures but to be honest so far there has been silence. I was actually hoping that today we might hearthat accompanying this legislation there might be another piece of legislation whether it is legislation or hard policy that was going to address how people who are in these situations—which my Green colleague Julie Anne Genter described as the person who borrowed $800 and ended up with a $70000 debt—would actually be able to repay their debt. That is the work of the select committee. I sit on that select committee. I hope that in good faith we can all work together across the committee and come back with a much more comprehensive piece of law.