Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is unprecedented for an individual minister to oversee the board of a government corporation without the Minister for Finance. It is unprecedented to set the investment mandate, which is a non-disallowable instrument, meaning the parliament cannot review it. It is even more disturbing if the minister's extraordinary and inappropriate powers over the board and the CEO are used. The absence of the finance minister undermines claims that the board has behaved appropriately in the face of very significant risk. Minister Canavan and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce insist that NAIF is an independent body that will make its own decisions, but since December they have been running around my state of Queensland and around the country taking every opportunity to promote a $1 billion subsidised loan from this supposedly independent body for their favourite project. If the NAIF was really independent it would push back against this political interference. Contrast with the CEFC, which this government has tried to shut down because the CEFC has pushed back. Improving the structure of the NAIF is urgent to stop this National Party boondoggle.

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