Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the shadow minister for lists for his contribution to the matter of public importance debate! I suggest to him that, while lists are a good way to fill a speech, they do not actually contribute terribly to the topic that the opposition obviously feels is significant enough for an MPI debate today. We have had 25 minutes of contribution from the other side and have had a great deal of personal vilification, a great deal of personal criticism, a touch of policy criticism and absolutely no outlining of a responsive, responsible opposition position on the future of the economy in Australia. In this debate about economic credibility, we are now facing an opposition who, if they would like to get some economic credibility, might then earn the right to call for some.

I suggest that people remember some of the debate leading up to the last election in this country. The member for Higgins, at that time the Treasurer, made a few comments in a few speeches about the fact that the economic clouds were gathering over Australia. Clearly at that time he had begun to understand that there were some real challenges facing the international economy. Indeed, the members of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration—some of my colleagues from the House sitting here and me—in August of last year called a national roundtable summit on the housing affordability and house-lending issue. At that time the chair of the committee, the then member for Cook—I see his successor is with us today—agreed that it was such a significant issue it was important for the House committee to have a look at it. It was a significant roundtable, well attended by regulators, bankers and insurers, where we had a discussion about the situation in Australia and the potential flow-on effects of what was rolling out in the subprime crisis in America. At the time the then member for Cook indicated that he was very much in the then Treasurer’s black books for allowing that roundtable to go ahead. What was clearly happening at that point in time—

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