Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

They looked on and goaded the RBA into raising interest rates, and they did not know when they were going to come down. Sure enough, there was a 100 basis point drop, and what happened over on the government side of this chamber? The government suddenly started protecting banks and saying there was no need to pass on 100 basis points. The other side of this chamber on the Labor side of politics has spent a generation bagging big banks, but suddenly when this side comes up with the idea that you might have full pass-through of an interest rate cut it is sacrilege. Let us note that that 20 basis point pass-on that was being requested represents probably $2.9 billion out of $23½ billion of bank profit in the last 12 months. That is barely 10 per cent. That was hardly going to bring down the banking sector, and at the same time the government told us that it was working on a bank guarantee. So the banks were going to be safe. How hard would it be to pass on the other 20 basis points? We are dealing with around $700 billion in mortgages around Australia. To pass on the extra 20 basis points would be barely $1.4 billion, barely a drop in bank profits. But here you had the government talking out of both sides of its mouth, saying that it suddenly had to protect the banking sector and it could pass on as little or as much as it chose. That is its chronology, and that is why today there is a certain amount of scepticism when this government gets blindsided by the events from overseas.

What are people asking for? I think they are asking for a confident leader and Treasurer in tough economic times. Of course you cannot guarantee a smooth passage in government, but we think it is time to work toward smoothing the seas where you can. At a time when the government should have been identifying the slowing in the economy, which is the time when you need confidence-building measures, where were they? They were building their reputation as tough economic managers and quite happy to punish pensioners. (Time expired)

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