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

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister and every member of his government voted against a banking royal commission 26 times. Having delayed the royal commission, the government should not delay parliament implementing its recommendations. Given that the parliament is only scheduled to sit for 10 days in eight months, why won't the Prime Minister schedule extra sittings of the parliament to implement the recommendations of the royal commission?

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

The member for McMahon hasn't even provided his response to the royal commission and he wants extra sitting weeks. He says, 'We have an in-principle agreement.' What is your message to the 17,000 mortgage brokers employing 26,000 people across the country? What is your message on once-only default? Does the member for McMahon agree with the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, who, on our approach on mortgage brokers, said:

I think the government is right to be cautious about going the full way and making the borrower pay.

ME Bank, owned by industry funds, has said about that recommendation:

I do not think it's about making the consumer pay.

Talking about extra sitting weeks, none other than the Law Council of Australia said:

Parliament must hasten slowly. We must take time to get this right. We must ensure a real opportunity to set this right through meaningful reform is not lost in the race to the election.

That's the Law Council of Australia sending the Labor Party a message about their stunts.

We have already taken action. We've announced the APRA capability review. The minister is talking to the states about putting in place a national farm debt mediation scheme. The Minister for Families and Social Services, the member for Bradfield, is working to ensure that there's a proper review to avoid the ad hoc approach that is currently underway for financial counselling.

We have said we're going further than the royal commission when it comes to extending the jurisdiction of the Federal Court of Australia to hear criminal cases in relation to white-collar crime. We've said we're going even further than the royal commission when it comes to AFCA, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, extending their jurisdiction and remit back not six years but 10 years to hear cases consistent with the period that was examined by the royal commission. We are setting up a scheme of last resort, and I pay tribute to the member for Higgins for the work that she undertook in that respect, and I pay tribute to the now Prime Minister, who as Treasurer put in place the Banking Executive Accountability Regime, which was endorsed by the royal commissioner. He said it not only should apply to banks but also should apply to insurance companies and superannuation funds.

We are taking action on many fronts. Indeed, we have legislation before this parliament to implement two recommendations of the Hayne royal commission with respect to super funds and bringing in penalties for trustees and directors. We are taking action; the Labor Party can't even be bothered with a response. (Time expired)