Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

For those honourable members interjecting from opposite, I have one message for them: to assist working families, pensioners and carers, it would help a lot if they unblocked the further $4 billion plus worth of measures that they are currently obstructing in the Senate. We hear many, many pious political statements about bipartisanship. Bipartisanship begins in the Senate, and that action begins with passing $4.3 billion worth of measures which are fundamental to the budget’s bottom line into the future and also of great help in delivering the support that the government has made available to the community through the Economic Security Strategy announced yesterday.

Finally, the honourable member asks about responses to the global financial crisis. I also announced earlier today that the government is examining measures to address excessive executive compensation in the financial sector. Those who have followed developments in recent times will be familiar with the way in which remuneration packages in certain financial institutions have made this financial crisis worse. What we have indicated today is that the government, in partnership with APRA, will now develop a template not just for this nation for the future but also for examination by the G20 and other international institutions of how excessive executive compensation can be reined in in the future. We believe this is the right course of action. It is not only the right course of action in terms of fairness; it is the right course of action because it is also intrinsic to sorting out the long-term stability of the financial system. The global financial crisis impacts on the real economy; it impacts on the financial system; it also impacts on how we design our regulations for the future. The government’s belief is that we have to act at all these levels. That includes making sure we have regulations in the future to deal with some of the excessive greed we have seen in private financial institutions in recent times in Australia, internationally, and consistently.

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