Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

John Grant from John Grant Motors. Just one car dealer got a personal phone call and just one car dealer gets regular updates sent to the Treasurer’s home.

The most significant correspondence has yet to be further discussed in this place. The starting point is the correspondence from Mr Andrew Thomas directly to Wayne Swan, the Treasurer, at his home fax. It is dated 20 February 2009—a Friday night—at 7.27 pm. It went to the Treasurer’s home. It reads like this:

Treasurer, both Godwin Grech and I have spoken to John Grant this evening. Godwin will arrange for Capital Financial to contact John in the next couple of days.

In other words, over the weekend. It goes on:

Capital has been very aggressive in the market, so it is a good chance to take on John’s business. As a fallback, Godwin will also raise John’s case with Ford Credit when he sees them in Melbourne on Monday. John has not yet been in contact with either. We are confident—

this is the Treasurer’s adviser talking directly to the Treasurer—

we can arrange for John to be taken up by one of these two.

After John Grant had approached the Treasurer—and I assume that there was one phone call but, I tell you what, we are going to find out if there were more—John Grant’s case is taken up. The Treasurer’s DLO says that they will work over the next couple of days—over the weekend—to find finance for the Prime Minister’s benefactor. And you know what? Here they are saying that before this crucial meeting with Ford Credit on Monday that they are absolutely confident that one of two finance companies will take up this facility.

On the Monday, there was a meeting with Ford Credit. You need to understand where Ford Credit was at, at that particular moment. Ford Credit was on the verge of complete collapse. I refer to the email from Godwin Grech to the Treasurer’s home on the Monday, at 8.23 pm. These words went directly to the Treasurer. They were not ‘reply to all’, they were actually to the Treasurer’s home—to the Treasurer. It was to the Treasurer and to Andrew Thomas, from his office:

Andrew, as promised—

that is, as promised to the Treasurer’s office—

I raised the case of John Grant with the CEO of Ford Credit, Greg Cohen, during my meeting with Ford Credit in Melbourne today.

I met with Ford Credit as part of the ongoing negotiations I have been having—along with Credit Suisse—to come up with a possible response to Ford Credit’s request … that the Government arrange for Ford Credit to access up to $500 million for around 12 months to allow it to continue to run its wholesale floorplan financing business in Australia.

As you know, Ford Credit will shut down the business if they cannot secure access to capital.

That was sent directly to the Treasurer. So the Treasurer—firstly—engaged in a direct conversation with just one dealer, John Grant from John Grant Motors. Secondly, the Treasurer has updates and briefings sent directly to his home for just one car dealer: John Grant, of John Grant Motors. Thirdly, the Treasurer is informed, directly to his home on a Friday night, that at a crucial meeting with Ford Credit that goes to the very survival of Ford Credit—access to $500 million—the Treasury official was going to raise the issue of just one car dealer: John Grant, of John Grant Motors. Then there is the report facsimile in relation to just one car dealer on the night of the meeting with Ford Credit, and it is that of John Grant. In fact, in that email, no other car dealership was raised. The head of Ford Credit and others have suggested that there might have been others. But what we do know, from evidence presented to the Senate, is that there was just one car dealer who had his mobile phone number passed across to the CEO of Ford Credit in that meeting where they were on their hands and knees begging for government support. He was described to the CEO of Ford Credit as an acquaintance of the Prime Minister, from Queensland. His name: John Grant, from John Grant Motors—one car dealer. You know what? The Treasurer said in this place that this was an entirely normal situation. He said:

It is the case that Mr Grant made representations to my office and he was referred on to the SPV just like everybody else.

Did everybody else receive personal phone calls from the Treasurer? No. Did everybody else have updates of their personal circumstances faxed directly to the Treasurer’s home? No. Everybody else got the attention on a Friday night, where it was flagged. It was guaranteed by the Treasurer’s own office to the Treasurer that if Ford Credit will not do it someone else will. At a meeting on the following Monday, there was a guarantee from the departmental liaison officer to the Treasurer that ‘John will be taken care of’. And then, on the Monday, the Treasury official Godwin Grech reported back to the Treasurer at his home. More than half of the email refers to the fact that John Grant, and I quote:

… Cohen—

that is, the head of Ford Credit

gave me an undertaking that Ford Credit will actively look at taking Grant on.

Ford Credit do not provide credit to Kia dealers. It is extraordinary, really.You are asking the Ford dealership to provide credit to a Kia motor dealer. Of course they are going to look at it. Of course they are going to break the rules of Ford Credit. Why wouldn’t they? It is the Treasurer. It is an acquaintance of the Prime Minister. It is someone who has given a car to the Prime Minister. It is someone that the Prime Minister knows from Queensland. ‘And, of course, here is his mobile phone number. Please action, Ford.’ What a surprise! How astounding that Ford would react and say: ‘Yes, we will discuss it. Of course we will contact John Grant.’ How ironic it is that Ford moved so quickly that this email update to the Treasurer’s own home, on the Monday night after the meeting, said:

John Grant called Godwin Grech earlier this afternoon (from Auckland)—to say that Ford Credit had been in contact with him after my meeting.

Well, of course! The head of Ford Credit goes straight out the door, rings the mobile phone straight away and says, obviously, ‘We will look at your case.’ The email goes on to say:

Ford Credit and Grant are to commence serious dialogue this Thursday.

so three days later. The email continues:

Grant seemed pleased.

I bet he did. He got the Rolls Royce treatment from the Treasurer, who said that John Grant was treated ‘just like everybody else’.

That says something about this debate—that the Treasurer has not shown the courage to walk in here and defend his own actions. Instead, he has sent the kid. If there were an MPI about my integrity or, having said that, about any minister’s integrity, that minister would have the courage to come into this place and defend their reputation, but not Wayne Swan. Wayne Swan is not in the business of defending his reputation—

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