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

I move:

That the amendment be agreed to.

As members are aware, the Senate earlier today passed the Guarantee of State and Territory Borrowing Appropriation Bill 2009. This is an important bill to support critical infrastructure investment by state and territory governments and to support Australian jobs. The market for state and territory bonds has been affected by the turmoil in global markets and liquidity in semigovernment bond markets has been severely constricted. This has threatened the capacity of state and territory governments to deliver critical infrastructure projects that will support jobs in the face of a global recession. This bill will ensure that states and territories can continue to access financial markets so as to undertake this critical investment.

It is disappointing the shadow Treasurer has preferred to pursue his own base political interests on such a critical piece of legislation. He well knows that the government currently maintains a register of all bondholders. These are the same arrangements that have been in place under previous governments. Further, the Australian Bureau of Statistics currently publishes information on the proportion of government securities held by overseas investors, and this proportion of bonds remains roughly the same from when those opposite were last in office. Bond purchases are made through market intermediaries, so it is not possible to identify final investors directly. There is also an active secondary market for bonds, which means that the holders of those bonds can change at any given time. As a result, the Treasury has advised that it will not be possible to publish the additional information and have any confidence it would provide an accurate reflection on the beneficial owners of Australian securities. Treasury also advises that the creation of an additional registry could result in reduced demand for government securities, so the opposition’s amendment will also impose additional costs on the taxpayer for information that would distort rather than provide additional clarity. This legislation and the infrastructure it will support are too important to be playing politics with, so we are supporting the bill as amended by the Senate. As I indicated during question time, we will explore what can be done to provide the information in an accountable way. I do believe those opposite should stop playing politics with Australian jobs and get behind the government’s efforts to support critical infrastructure investment.

Question agreed to.