Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

but nothing will substitute for a full apology on the floor of this parliament from the Leader of the Opposition to Dr Henry and to the Australian people. That is what is absolutely demanded by his reckless behaviour in question time today, so the Leader of the Opposition has still got time. At some time in the next 24 hours he ought to come into this House and apologise for his behaviour in question time.

This is just the latest evidence of reckless behaviour that we have seen through the past few weeks. There was the extraordinary discussion the Leader of the Opposition had on Insiders on Sunday. He went on that program and said: ‘The global financial crisis is just all being hyped up. Don’t worry about it. It’s no massive challenge for the globe or the country. It’s all been hyped up by Kevin Rudd.’ That demonstrates something very fundamental about the Leader of the Opposition. Firstly, it demonstrates how out of touch he is. He does not understand the impact of that on superannuation and what that means to the lifestyles of retirees. He does not fundamentally understand the impact on the profitability of small business. He does not understand any of those things if he thinks that the global financial crisis is hyped up. It proves he is absolutely out of touch with what is happening to average Australian families and businesses. But, perhaps even more importantly, he has demonstrated he does not understand the magnitude of the challenge Australians are facing in the middle of this global financial crisis by coming into the House and questioning the deposit guarantee.

This deposit guarantee is very important to confidence, and that is why we made it comprehensive. We made it comprehensive because there was a need to assure everyone that their deposits were safe. Of course, he made the remark before that there should be a cap—$20,000 or $100,000. A cap will not work in these circumstances, and that just proves that he does not understand what we are doing. We are in the middle of a global financial crisis and under the proposal of the Leader of the Opposition 40 per cent of the deposits in the banking system would not be covered. That is the proposition that he is putting to the Australian people. That is absolutely irresponsible, absolutely reckless and shows that he does not have an understanding of the fundamental challenge the nation faces in the circumstances that we are in.

The bank guarantee is very important to confidence, very important to assure all Australians that the financial system is stable. And he comes into this House raising questions about it, quoting an inaccurate report on the front page of the Australian, irresponsibly blowing it up before he had heard from the Governor of the Reserve Bank. He was prepared to do that because he will say anything and he will do anything for his personal political power. The Governor of the Reserve Bank has stated the situation in his speech today. He has made it very, very clear that the Reserve Bank supports the position of the government. Might I just add that, as the Treasurer, I have been meeting regularly with the Council of Financial Regulators—something my predecessor rarely ever did. I have been meeting with them because the times have demanded it and the times have been like this all year, just as we stated in the budget.

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