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| Ms LAWRIE (Treasurer): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time. The purpose of this bill is to repeal the Consumer Credit (Northern Territory) Act and make transitional arrangements and consequential amendments to other Northern Territory legislation following the passing of the Commonwealth legislation regulating consumer credit. In March 2008 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) committed to a comprehensive national regulatory reform agenda to deliver a seamless national economy in order to improve Australia’s competition, productivity and international competitiveness. To further these objectives COAG agreed in 2008 to a national scheme for the regulation of credit and finance broking. Under the national scheme the Commonwealth would pass the appropriate legislation and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) would take on the regulatory and enforcement role previously undertaken by the states and territories. The national scheme is underpinned by an intergovernmental agreement that operates similarly to the Corporations Agreement 2002. In October 2009 the Commonwealth established the new regulatory framework with the passage of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009. The framework allows for the registration of credit providers with ASIC from 1 April 2010 with the full licensing and regulatory scheme to operate from 1 July 2010. The new framework will provide consumers with consistent and better protections across Australia. The reforms include: new, responsible lending conduct requirements imposed on licensees which will require that credit providers and services be suitable for the consumer’s needs, and that the consumer has the capacity to repay; improve sanctions and enhance enforcement powers; protection for those consumers taking out loans to purchase, renovate or refinance a residential investment property; greater access for consumers to information including fees, charges and commissions; and greater access to low cost external dispute resolution schemes rather than having to go to court. With the passage of the Commonwealth legislation the Consumer Credit (Northern Territory) Act becomes redundant and is repealed by this bill. Similarly, Division 4 of Part 5 and Part 12 of the Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading Act, which deals with credit contracts and licensing of credit providers respectively, also becomes redundant and are repealed by this bill. A number of minor consequential amendments are made to other acts that refer to credit legislation to refer to the new Commonwealth act. As the Northern Territory has no legislation dealing specifically with the regulation of finance brokers, this bill only deals with credit-related matters. Part 6 of the bill contains transitional provisions and the regulation-making power. The regulation-making power is quite broad and is intended to allow regulations to be made to cater for unforeseen technical or other issues that might arise in the transition of regulation of the provision of credit from Territory legislation to Commonwealth legislation. At this time, no such regulations are proposed. Madam Speaker I commend the bill to honourable members and I table a copy of the explanatory statement. Debate adjourned. |