Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Denis Scanlon is 75 and he lives in the electorate of Higgins. Denis says his financial adviser has admitted to ripping him off, but his bank is still trying to sell his house after selling both his business and his commercial property. Denis says ASIC and the Financial Ombudsman Service have told him they cannot help. And his local member, the Assistant Treasurer, has given him a list of community legal centres, despite the fact that the Liberal government has cut funding to these services. When will the Prime Minister end his excuses and launch a royal commission so that cases like this can be properly investigated?

Mr Conroy interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister has the call. The member for Charlton will cease interjecting.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question from the honourable member underlines the reckless populism of the Labor Party on this issue. Here you have an individual who has a complaint against a bank, who says that he has been misled—and it may be that he has been misled—and what is the Labor Party's answer? Three years of a royal commission, which has no power to compensate that gentleman—it has no ability to right any wrong—and which will simply go on for years and years. No action. It is just another inquiry. The gentleman that the honourable member refers to no doubt needs redress, no doubt needs legal advice, and his member of parliament has directed him to where he can get it. The reality is that a royal commission of the kind proposed by Labor will offer nothing more than, after many years, a long report, and the gentleman concerned will still be waiting.

We are taking action. We are committed to ensuring that ASIC does its job, that it investigates complaints and deals with them. And we are also taking action in respect of small business, protecting small business in the construction sector and on the roads, because the Labor Party's concern is only to run a populist campaign against banks. It has no concern with small business. It has no concern about any of the owner drivers who were with us yesterday and who are here today. No; it wants to run them out of business. It has no concern about the grown men there with their families, with their wives, with their little children weeping as they saw their businesses dissolve because of a dirty deal done between the Leader of the Opposition and the Transport Workers Union. The only tears from the opposition are indeed crocodile tears. The men and women of Australia—the small business men and women—who need to be supported by government were abandoned by Labor, and we are determined to set them right again.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Parramatta! There were a number of members interjecting throughout that answer. The members for Wakefield and Griffith are warned. If they interject again they will be leaving question time.