Submission: Exposure Drafts of the National Consumer Credit Protection Amendment (Credit Reform Phase 2) Bill 2012
The Consumer Action Law Centre welcomes the opportunity to comment on the draft National Consumer Credit Protection Amendment (Credit Reform Phase 2) Bill 2012.
Briefly, this submission:
- strongly supports the inclusion of a general anti-avoidance provision in the National Consumer Credit Protection Act, and broadly supports the drafting of the proposed section 323A. We have made some recommendations for how to improve s 323A ;
- strongly supports the amendments to section 171 which remove the short term and indefinite lease exemptions currently in s171 of the National Credit Code.
- does not support the current drafting of section 171A(3) which would appear to regulate ‘Rent to Own’ arrangements as indefinite leases. Rent to Own arrangements are in all substantial terms a credit contract and should be regulated as such;
- supports the extension of the National Credit Code to regulate private lending; and
- provides comments on the provisions regarding small business credit contracts (now removed from the Bill) and investment credit contracts.
