Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

The fact is that the government simply does not appear to take heed of the warnings that are coming from overseas. The most stark and chilling of these recent warnings have been those of the Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King. Last week he stated:

This is the most serious financial crisis we have seen at least since the 1930s, if not ever, and we are having to deal with very unusual circumstances but react calmly to this and do the right thing.

In essence Sir Mervyn is warning that the current world financial crisis is possibly worse than the 1930s. These are sobering statements that the Treasurer and the Prime Minister do not appear to be heeding. Covered bonds reform is a step in the right direction; however, these reforms are overwhelmed by antireform actions like the carbon tax and the mining tax. They are overwhelmed by the anticompetitive NBN proposal, which the—

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