Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Oxley for his question. He has shown a great deal of interest over his time in this place in improving services and certainty for consumers in the financial sector. Certainty is important because the consequences of getting certainty wrong in banking regulation can have catastrophic consequences for all Australians, as I am sure people opposite understand.

The big four banks in Australia—and many of their other colleagues—go overseas to raise a lot of their capital. Members opposite may be interested to know that that is in the order of 40 per cent of all the capital that is raised. What that means is that 40 per cent of an average Australian’s mortgage is raised overseas. Of course, if overseas lenders lose confidence in the debate in Australia on banking regulation, that can have catastrophic consequences for Australian mortgage holders. I think the people opposite know where this answer is going. We all understand that, in fact, overseas lenders have been particularly sensitive in recent times following the very difficult set of circumstances which many foreign banks have experienced through the global financial crisis.

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