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

Those opposite regard this as not relevant to the current debate. The recommendations which came to the previous government for a financial claims scheme came out of the HIH royal commission. An entire company goes under, the member for North Sydney was the minister for financial regulation at the time, and a certain other member of this parliament seemed to have a material engagement in those matters at the time—I will leave that to one side. But can I say to those others opposite: if we have a clear statement to us by the Secretary of the Treasury that this is the position of the regulators, and if the Governor of the Reserve Bank then confirms that is the case, then this is an open and shut case. Those opposite are simply clutching at straws; again trying to make a cheap political point. The government stands by the Secretary of the Treasury. He is a first-class officer of the Commonwealth. The government stands by the integrity of the Reserve Bank, of APRA, of ASIC and of the council of economic regulators. If those opposite were interested in the nation’s long-term economic interests, they would do so as well.

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