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

We see the embarrassment of those on the other side of the House, who opposed this in this House—a measure that was so fundamental. Day after day, month after month they opposed the guarantee, they rubbished it in this House, they came in here and asked question after question and they did not support it. This demonstrates why they have made such a fundamental misjudgment about the handling of the global recession. It goes to the very core of their lack of judgment. Everybody on this side of the House remembers very well, day after day, the opposition from those on that side of the House to a measure which did so much to support our financial system and our broader economy at a time of threat from the global financial crisis and what became the global recession.

This is a very serious issue, but those opposite are so embarrassed they have to get up and interrupt a relatively straightforward answer to this question. They are completely embarrassed by their bloody-minded opposition to the bank guarantee and to the term-funding guarantee, which just demonstrates their lack of economic judgment. Without the guarantee, our banks would have lent less and interest rates for borrowers would have been far higher. That is the consequence of the guarantee. We were able to stabilise our banking system and ensure the flow of credit right through our economy. We can say today that Australia has been the only major advanced economy in the world that has avoided a recession and it has been one of the few to grow during that period.

Once again the lack of judgment from those opposite is obvious, because they not only opposed the bank guarantee in this House; they also opposed the stimulus back in February in this House, and of course they have continued to oppose the stimulus and have been out there suggesting that the stimulus should be withdrawn, which of course would pull the rug right out from underneath the recovery. Governor Stevens has summed this up all very well. This is what he had to say about the introduction of the bank guarantee:

… helped to stabilise what could have been a catastrophic loss of confidence in the global financial system …  public confidence in the security of the banking system maintained … and stabilised a potentially quite dangerous situation.

You would have thought that something of that magnitude might have secured the continuous support in this House of the Liberal and National parties, but it did not. They opposed it tooth and nail in this House. What we are now seeing is a continuation of that irresponsible behaviour and that lack of judgment, which demonstrates what a risk all of those opposite are to our economic recovery.

We have had the Leader of the Opposition make unfunded commitments to the tune of $10.7 billion over five years at the same time as opposing the stimulus. The fact of the matter is that the Leader of the Opposition does not understand economics and regards it as boring, and that is simply a proxy for the fact he has not got the faintest idea what is going on in the economy. We have got the shadow Treasurer, who appeared on television last night wearing a crown, waving a magic wand and wrapping himself in a tutu, like a giant Tinkerbell! And, of course, we have got Senator Joyce. This is the least qualified economic team from any political party in this House for well over 30 years. They are demonstrating yet again their complete lack of judgment.

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