Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

No, I cannot confirm any of those matters because the Future Fund is an independent statutory corporation which makes these decisions itself and is not subject to government direction. The government was neither consulted nor could it intervene in relation to any of those matters. And can I, on the way through, make this point: the Labor Party will either respect the independence of the Future Fund or it will not and, if the Labor Party wants to reserve unto itself the right to interfere with the Future Fund, we will let the people of Australia know about it. We will let the people of Australia know that the Labor Party has designs on something which was set up for the future of this country and not for the cheap political opportunism of this Australian Labor Party. I have every reason to believe that the Future Fund acted with propriety, and if the Labor Party thinks that it has not then the Labor Party should come out and say that the contract should be annulled.

As I understand it, the other bidder—and I am only going on what I have read in the paper—was the National Australia Bank. One could say that the National Australia Bank has been the subject of its own inquiries, has it not? Were there not currency traders at the National Australia Bank who have been the subject of charges?

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