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Consumer Action, and the various organisations from the Stop the Debt Trap Alliance, routinely advise and assist people who have multiple payday loans and/or consumer leases that they took on due to their financial hardship, but which only further entrench their situation.

We are members of the Stop the Debt Trap Alliance, a broad group of community and consumer focused organisations that have advocated for the reforms contained in the Financial Sector Reform Act 2022 (FSR Act) to be implemented for years.

We strongly support the majority of the content of the Draft Regs and Explantary Statement. If made, they will do a good job of ensuring that the FSR Act reforms operate as recommended in the final report of Treasury’s 2016 Independent Review of Small Amount Credit Contracts (SACC Review). However, there are some sections that may need amending to ensure the SACC Review recommendations are delivered in full.

Once these issues are resolved, we urge the Government to make these regulations as quickly as possible, so that they commence when the provisions in the FSR Act applying to small amount credit contracts (SACCs) and consumer leases come into effect on 12 June 2023.

Read the full submission (PDF).