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

I thank the shadow—Treasurer. Sorry, they confuse me over there with their twists and turns. I thank the shadow Treasurer for his question. To the shadow Treasurer I would say this: the only political party in contemporary politics that has gone to an election making a false claim about interest rates is the Liberal Party of Australia when it campaigned on keeping interest rates at record lows and then interest rates went up and up and up. What I would also say to the shadow Treasurer, and I do not know if this has passed him by, is that in open market economies like the Australian economy we believe in the power of competition. I know that might be news to the shadow Treasurer. He has never heard of an open market economy, he has never heard of competition, and all of these things are confusing him. But I believe that, in an open market economy, competition is good. Consequently, I believe that, if you can remove impediments that stop people from using their competitive power and pressure as consumers to get a better deal, then that is a good thing. It is obviously anticompetition to chain people to banking products they no longer want through unfair exit fees. It obviously is a bad thing. I would say that the proof of the pudding has been in the eating.

See this speech in context