Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the Treasurer’s refusal yesterday to rule out interest rate rises on the back of the government’s plans for bank exit fees. I now ask the Prime Minister: will the Prime Minister guarantee that interest rates will not rise as a direct result of the government’s banking package?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. With regard to the first half of the shadow Treasurer’s question, that was pure argument and should be ruled out of order. Also, it was not the case and people should not be verballed by the way that questions are asked.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will permit the question, but, again, it illustrates that, if the rules for both questions and answers were the same, there would be a greater restriction on the questions. That is a decision I have made, but the less opinion and argument in the questions the greater it helps me to drag the answers back to the question.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to 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.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I will repeat it very slowly for the Prime Minister, because she speaks very slowly and deliberately.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If the member for North Sydney has risen on relevance, that is the point of order, but he does not enter into argument. The member for North Sydney has risen on a point of order about relevance. The Prime Minister understands the need to relate her response directly to the question.

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

I would rather speak sense slowly than be a gabbling idiot, but there we have it. On the question of speaking sense slowly to the shadow Treasurer, I believe in competition. Therefore, if you remove impediments to competition, that is a good thing. The proof of the pudding has been in the eating. We are already seeing, as a result of the signals about banking competition that have come from this government, banks out there offering more competitive products, including no more exit fees. I do not understand the shadow Treasurer’s case to the Australian people, but I presume he is on the cusp of producing a bumper sticker that says: ‘Vote Liberal and get unfair banking exit fees.’ That would be a good bumper sticker.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Prime Minister is wandering too far into debate.

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

I recommend it to the shadow Treasurer if he really thinks that is good for Australian families. What I think is good for Australian families is being able to shop around for a mortgage product. What I think is good for Australian families is being able to say, with force and meaning, to their bank, ‘If I don’t get a good deal from you, I’m going to go down the road and get a better deal.’ What I think is in the interests of Australian families is that banks go in hard, go in competitively and go in with better and better and more and more competitive products. That is why we are opposed to these kinds of bank exit fees. I presume the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer support them. I will leave that to them.