Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. The leaking of the bank tax on budget day saw billions of dollars wiped off the stock market. Is the Treasurer aware that the secretary of the Treasury told Senate estimates about the leak, saying: 'I have seen nothing in the time I have been secretary to make me think it came from the Treasury.'? The secretary of the Treasury is satisfied the leak did not come from the just five Treasury officials who knew about the bank tax. Can the Treasurer categorically rule out that the leak came from him or his office?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Of course it did not, and I resent the implication from the shadow Treasurer, who comes into this place every single day and, on the one opportunity he has to ask a question, once again, he is raising his objections to the bank tax—so offended is he that this government has actually decided to do something about the banking system in this country. First of all, we put in place the Financial Systems Inquiry—something that he opposed when he was the Treasurer. Then we moved beyond that and we have introduced a new Banking Executive Accountability Regime. We are dealing with the challenges in our banking system of ensuring that the consumers of banks can actually get their cases heard, with the establishment of a new one-stop shop when it comes to our banking system where customers of banks who have issues with banks can actually get their cases heard and they can have binding resolutions to them. But do we get questions from the shadow Treasurer on consumers' interests in banks, or do we just get the banker's parrot coming in here and making a galah of himself?