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

The government signalled its intention to discuss matters with Ford Credit back in last December. Those discussions proceeded through the early part of the year because a particular problem had emerged in terms of Ford Credit and it was ultimately resolved in a cabinet decision that was announced after the budget. Of course, there are something like 300 to 400 dealers, particularly in rural and regional Australia, involved with Ford Credit, and the government’s decision to involve them in the SPV has been very important in supporting that employment.

As the email indicated, those matters were raised at one of those meetings by the responsible Treasury official, but the meeting they were raised at was a meeting that had been organised well before Mr Grant had made his representations to the Treasury, and it was not abnormal for Treasury officials to be talking to those that were providing finance to the industry. This has been made abundantly clear again today by the Motor Trades Association of Australia. I will just run through what Mr Delaney has had to say about that:

The treatment that Mr Grant, a member of mine, got was no different from the treatment all of my other members got on my intervention on their behalf to Mr Grech. They were all treated in the same way, and for the same good reason: there was no other way to do these things. In fact, I think Mr Grant has been treated less well because he went to the Treasurer.

What was going on here was also, I think, quite well described this morning by Mr Delaney, because he talked about the fact that there was a prospect of $8 billion worth of car financing simply being withdrawn. That was under threat. So Treasury officials, I believe, were legitimately seeking to assist those dealers that may not have been refinanced by those financiers who were leaving the market, and they were putting them in contact with those that were in the market. And, of course, Ford Credit was one of those. All of that is entirely appropriate, but the decisions on that were taken by the Treasury officials.

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