An American Vice-President once said that the moral test of a Government is how it treats those in the dawn of life, those in the twilight of life, and those in the shadows of life. The Credit Reform (Responsible Lending) Bill is about protecting those people in some of the darker shadows of life—Kiwis who have become so trapped in the cycle of poverty and debt that they are forced to borrow money from predatory fringe lenders just to live from one day to the next. Those lenders—let us call them by their true name: loan sharks—target the most vulnerable members of our society and charge them obscenely high interest rates, sometimes 1,000 or 2,000 percent per annum once the true rate is calculated. The lenders have no intent of ever seeing their loans repaid; that is not how the business model works. Instead they profit off the rapidly compounding interest and the subsequent seizure of the debtor’s assets once the debt has been sold on to a repossession company. That behaviour is morally repugnant.

I am proud that Carol Beaumont has sponsored this legislation, which seeks to regulate the interest rates that lenders can charge and require them to take responsibility for ensuring that those people taking out loans can actually pay them back. I congratulate Carol Beaumont on her campaign on this issue, and on her determination to pursue it, whatever the outcome of tonight’s debate. She can be assured of the continuing support of all members on this side of the House.

The changes set out in the Credit Reforms (Responsible Lending) Bill have never been as urgent as they are now. Times have never been better for loan sharks. Unemployment is up and families are struggling to make ends meet. At least 75 percent of taxpayers earn under $40,000 a year. That is a huge group who have been left worse off as a result of this year’s Budget and the price inflation and wage deflation we are seeing in its wake. Despite that, the Government refuses to act.

Heather Roy has just trotted out the claptrap we have heard from the officials at the Ministry of Consumer Affairs for the last 5 years. Her excuse for turning her back on the vulnerable people targeted by loan sharks is that the area is too complex and that credit contracts law is currently under review. Well, that is not good enough. Struggling families out there cannot wait another year for her review and for solutions that may not even hit the target as far as what is required. We have to take action now. For National and ACT to refuse to let this bill go to a select committee is to let down all Kiwis.

This bill was drafted with input from a number of individuals. I give credit to former professor Duncan Webb and Andrew Shann, in particular, for their assistance. Andrew Shann has campaigned tirelessly on behalf of those people adversely affected by loan sharks. He took the issue to National and asked it in good faith to act on this issue, only to be ignored. He has authorised me to say that his father, now 91 years of age, is at home listening to the debate tonight. Mr Shann Snr is a former National Party electorate chair. His family’s support for the National Party goes back to that party’s foundation in 1936. He is appalled that the party today lacks the decency to see that supporting this legislation is the right thing to do.

While we are talking about National Party pedigrees, if she does not mind me putting it that way, I want to acknowledge the presence of the Mayor of Porirua, Jenny Brash, in the gallery tonight, and the Deputy Mayor of Porirua City, Litea Ah Hoi. Porirua City has been fantastic in supporting this measure. It sees every day the damage that loan sharks do, and it understands the need to regulate.

I challenge the Government to do what is morally right: to protect the most vulnerable, struggling New Zealand families from those who are exploiting them. It owes it to people such as the family in Mount Albert whose house I was present at last year when the repo agent came to call on behalf of Budget Loans. That agent’s conduct was disgraceful. At the time, Budget Loans was and still is owned by Cynotech Holdings Ltd. Cynotech is run by convicted fraudster Allan Hawkins. Its fifth-largest shareholder is a subsidiary of the New Zealand Guardian Trust. Its sixth-largest shareholder at the time was the family trust of Craig Foss, chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee, although I note that the trust has now disposed of that shareholding. Clearly, there is a lot of money to be made by those who choose to profit from the activities of loan sharks. Shame on them, because they do it off the backs of the most vulnerable in our society, and shame on National and ACT for leaving us in the company of countries like Nigeria that fail to act to protect the vulnerable. That failure is a betrayal.