Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

in reply—I start by thanking the member for Hunter and in particular the member for Canberra for their respective contributions to this debate on the Financial Sector Legislation Amendment (Trans-Tasman Banking Supervision) Bill 2006. While I accept that the comments from the member for Canberra are sincere, I point out to her that the states and territories are the ones charged with responsibility for regulation in areas such as mortgage broking. If this is not a political stunt by the member for Hunter, he would be well advised to be in contact with the member for Canberra and then ask to get in contact with their Labor colleagues at a state and territory level, because they are the ones charged with regulation on the issues that the member for Canberra has raised.

The Australian and New Zealand banking markets are among the most highly integrated in the world. Australian banks have a combined market share of more than 85 per cent of the New Zealand banking market, and New Zealand assets comprise around 15 per cent of Australian bank total assets. This bill is an important step towards creating a seamless regulatory environment for banks with operations in both Australia and New Zealand. It will allow banks greater flexibility in how they structure their businesses. This will bring compliance cost and efficiency benefits, which should flow to consumers. It will also contribute to the competitiveness of Australian banks in an increasingly global financial system. Importantly, the bill will also ensure that the banking supervisors in both countries are able to cooperate in promoting financial system stability in each country.

This bill makes important progress to the Australia-New Zealand single economic market objective. It enhances the framework for ensuring that trans-Tasman banks and financial systems remain sound while providing benefits to banks, their customers and the economy more broadly. Therefore, I commend this bill to the House.

See this speech in context