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

I endorse the remarks made by the minister for small business, and the reason I endorse them is that they go to the impact of competition policy—what can actually occur out there in the marketplace. I imagine, knowing the minister for small business very well, that he would have been talking about competition policy, because that is how you keep competitive pressures in the economy and keep prices low—and that is one of the principles for which we stand.

A second way in which you can actually contain price rises is through effective consumer protection laws. I note the efforts recently by the minister for financial services to make sure that we have got proper consumer credit protection laws, the first national consumer credit law in the country, which brings together the conflicting jurisdictions of the states into a single form, enabling consumers to have enhanced rights to deal with any exploitative behaviour towards them on the cost of credit and the conditions associated with credit. On the question of the impact on prices associated with the introduction of the government’s proposed tax reforms, once again I would refer the member to the detailed findings and conclusions of the Treasury modelling.

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