Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I was asked about the opposition’s banking plan. Its foundation stone as originally articulated by the shadow Treasurer was reregulating interest rates. No, I regret to say to the new member for Bennelong, we will not be doing that, because to do that would mean we were turning our backs on 30 years of economic reform. To do that would mean we would be accepting a situation where young couples and small businesses could not get loans. That was the legacy of regulated interest rates, which is why this nation took a step into the modern world and started building the modern economy that we have today—a modern economy that can be secured in the future only by further economic reform. I regret to say to the new member for Bennelong that, unfortunately, the shadow Treasurer is going back 30 years in time. We will not be joining him in a strategy destined to impoverish this nation.

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