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While there remains a distinction between a bank and a non-bank financial institution, developments in recent years, particularly with the success of the so-called AFIC package, the Australian financial institutions code, under a cooperative State, Commonwealth and Territory package - in fact, essentially it is a cooperative State and Territory package; the Commonwealth has a limited role - have seen the non-bank financial institutions club together and there are, in effect, last resort facilities. People who invest in credit unions or building societies now are far safer than they were some years ago. That quite substantial reform was prompted by some of the situations that occurred in Victoria in the late 1980s when a number of prominent non-bank financial institutions, principally Pyramid, collapsed and there was no facility whereby non-bank institutions in trouble could secure any last resort facilities.

One of the principal reasons why we were attracted to support the calls for this amendment from the credit unions lobbyist, the credit union peak body, was their argument that levelling the playing field and allowing credit unions to access the trustee market in the same way as banks would make it easier for the credit unions to be generally competitive. As Consumer Affairs Minister for some years, and now as Opposition spokesperson, it is noticeable to me that a number of the credit unions, to their great credit, have tried to avoid many of the practices that the banks have introduced in recent years, in relation to fees and charges, that have created howls of protest. There is no doubt that when you look at what are competitive and attractive products for the small banker, the person who does not have massive investments but just wants to deposit their salary cheque and access their money in a convenient manner, and perhaps take out minor loans and do modest domestic banking operations, credit unions - without trying to do an ad for credit unions - offer an attractive alternative.

It does seem fair, given that credit unions have tried to do the right thing by consumers, that governments, if they safely can, should level the playing field to allow credit unions access to markets like the trustee market. We were certainly convinced late last year, when we promised to do this, as I am sure Mr Humphries was when he was then in opposition and also promised to do this, that the AFIC package meant that we were able to provide this opening of the market because the trustees could feel confident, if they chose to invest trust moneys in credit unions, that the AFIC package would provide adequate protection.

Mr Speaker, Mr Humphries, just some little while ago, provided me with some amendments that he proposes to make. I notice that the Chief Minister was a little critical of Labor amendments that were tabled only this day. I think the timeframe is roughly equivalent, but fortunately I had been spoken to by industry representatives who flagged that these amendments were coming. What Mr Humphries is proposing is a fairly minor opening up to provide the same facility for bodies not resident here. He assures me that he is mirroring New South Wales legislation. That seems sensible because New South Wales moved in this direction some little while ago. Labor is happy to support the Bill and the minor amendments that the Attorney-General is bringing forward. It is legislation that both parties supported before the election. It does open the market to credit unions and we would hope that, as a result of a new market being opened to credit unions, they can continue to strive to provide competitive and attractive packages to small consumers.

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