Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The Ancient Greeks invented irony, but the Morrison government has taken it to a whole new level. Only the Morrison government could introduce a bill that winds back the very first recommendation of the Hayne royal commission into the banking and financing sector on the same day that they insist that the parliament pass through another bill, which purports to implement the recommendations of the Hayne royal commission. I kid you not. This is what this mob over here are doing. They've introduced a bill to undo that Hayne royal commission recommendation on the very same day as we're proposing to debate a bill to implement the recommendations of the Hayne royal commission—crazy but true. This is what this mob do. You can't trust what they say; you've got to look at the detail of what they are doing.

We can foreshadow today that we won't be buying it. We won't be backing it. We'll be backing the Hayne royal commission—the very first recommendation, the responsible lending laws, the bedrock on which every other recommendation is built. This mob over here—the very same mob that voted 26 times to oppose the royal commission and explored every other alternative and, once every other alternative was exhausted, decided to do the right thing and have a royal commission—are now trying to undo it. We won't let them get away with it.

Of course, not everybody on the coalition side agreed with what the Prime Minister was proposing to do. There is one Nationals senator who deserves an honourable mention. I refer to the former senator for New South Wales, John 'Wacka' Williams. He would be absolutely appalled at what this mob over here are proposing to do in relation to responsible lending laws. He not only was an advocate for the laws but was actually a victim. He could tell you, from his firsthand experience, the consequence of poor loan-selling behaviour and poor lending behaviour—the consequence for farmers like him and their families. He lost his farm because of this sort of shark behaviour—the very sort of behaviour that the coalition is trying to breathe life back into through the bill they introduced into the House this morning.

We won't stand for it, and I'm looking forward to listening to what John 'Wacka' Williams has to say about what this mob is proposing to do. I'd like to be a fly on the wall for some of those phone calls between him and some of his Nationals colleagues in the Senate. The Nationals should do the right thing and throw this bill out. They should vote with Labor on that proposition. I know that if John 'Wacka' Williams was still in the Senate he'd be doing exactly the same thing.

I want to talk about some of the provisions within the bill before us, the Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response) Bill 2020. Before I do that, I want to thank all those who have come before us in ensuring that this bill actually came before the House—the member for McMahon and the member for Maribyrnong, who in the previous parliament campaigned tirelessly to ensure that we had a royal commission, as well as the member for Rankin, the member for Kingsford Smith and the member for Fenner, who had been working tirelessly on ensuring that the government's promises were brought to this parliament through the implementation bills. That's because we knew that, given the opportunity, the government would be backsliding at every single moment. So I thank the member for Rankin, the member for Kingsford Smith and the member for Fenner for their great work in keeping the government honest on these things.

Over the last fortnight—and I'm looking at the member for Kingsford Smith—we must have conducted consultations with over 30 organisations.

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