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

My question's to the Treasurer. On Saturday, the Treasurer said ASIC and APRA have a case to answer as to how some of this conduct occurred on their watch. But in April 2016, when arguing against a banking royal commission, the now Treasurer said ASIC and APRA had 'stronger powers than a royal commission'. Why, two years after he said they had stronger powers than a royal commission, is the Treasurer now blaming the regulators and only now promising them more powers?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What hypocrisy from the member from McMahon! Actually, Labor has voted against a royal commission itself. That's the reality. I want to share with the House what the then Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation and now Leader of the Opposition said when he was the minister about the 'sound regulatory system we have in place'. He said, 'Australia has an excellent regulatory system and prudent management.' When Labor was last in office, do you know what happened? We had the Trio Capital collapse, we had the Storm Financial collapse and we had the Opes Prime collapse.

The coalition have been absolutely committed to putting in place greater resourcing for ASIC, increased better personnel and increased support across the board in the sector. We have increased the penalties and we've increased the resourcing, with $70 million this year to implement the new strategy. There was $121 million for ASIC as a funding package in April 2016 and a new chair in James Shipton and a new second deputy chair in Dan Crennan as a special prosecutor. We established the ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce. The then Treasurer and the then Minister for Revenue and Financial Services put in place the BEAR accountability regime. These are all steps that we have taken to ensure a more transparent and accountable financial system.

At the same time, the royal commission has revealed appalling acts of misconduct, acts that have shocked everybody in this chamber. Fees for no service, fees for dead people and 300,000 allegations of providing insurance services on an unsolicited basis—this is what has been revealed by the royal commission. The royal commissioner is doing an outstanding job. We await his interim report later this month and his final report, which is due next February, but we are absolutely committed with the measures that we have already put in place—and we will follow up on the royal commissioner's recommendations—to ensuring a more accountable and transparent financial system for all Australians.