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Queensland Parliament unless there has been a resolution of the ministerial council, passed by a majority of at least two-thirds of the members who are present and who vote, approving the amending legislation. Once approved, the amending legislation is introduced into the Queensland Parliament and, if adopted, is then applied by the other States and Territories. All parties are bound by the agreement not to submit to their respective parliaments legislation which conflicts with or negates the consumer credit legislation. I am not entirely clear, Mr Speaker, what the extent of that obligation might be on parties other than government parties in various parliaments, but I certainly hope that members around the chamber are prepared to respect the spirit of that agreement.

Some provisions will be non-uniform. These areas will cover essentially administrative matters, namely, whether a court or tribunal will be utilised in resolving disputes, whether there will be positive or negative licensing of credit providers and whether a maximum interest rate will be set. The Territory has chosen to establish a Financial Counselling Trust Fund into which civil penalty moneys can be paid. This is a matter of discretion for each jurisdiction. The Territory will also continue to utilise the Credit Tribunal.

The legislation applies to all forms of consumer credit. Business credit is not regulated, and this stands in contrast to the existing law which attempts to regulate credit provided for the purchase of farm machinery and commercial vehicles. The legislation also applies to credit given to natural persons unless the debtor is a strata corporation. Also, a charge must be made for the credit, and it must be provided by a credit provider as part of its business. The credit must be provided, or intended to be provided, wholly or predominantly for personal, domestic or household purposes. A predominant purpose is defined to include a purpose for which more than one-half of the credit is intended to be used or, if the credit is intended to be used to obtain goods and services for different purposes, the purposes for which the goods or services are intended to be most used. In the case of credit used to purchase a vehicle used partly for personal and partly for business activities, if the vehicle is mostly used for business purposes the transaction is not regulated by the code, whereas if the vehicle is mostly used for personal purposes it is. A number of exceptions are also contained in the legislation and are set out in clause 7 of the code. The exceptions essentially mirror those which are currently provided by the Credit Act.

One of the key elements of the Consumer Credit Code is to ensure that there is truth in lending. This means that a consumer can make an informed choice between credit providers as to the nature of the credit being offered as well as the comparative costs between credit providers. The legislation sets out in some detail the requirements of credit contracts, including basic matters like precontractual disclosure, the fact that credit contracts must be in writing and that they must contain certain key material designed to ensure that there is truth in lending. Key disclosures are outlined in clause 15 of the code and deal with critical issues such as the annual percentage rate or rates, the amount and number of repayments, the calculation and total amount of interest charges, credit fees and charges, default rates, enforcement expenses, commissions, insurance financed by the contract, and other critical information.

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