Ruth Webber (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Assistant Treasurer, Senator Coonan. I refer the minister to Tuesday’s budget announcement, which provided significant additional funding to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for surveillance and enforcement activities. Does the minister recall the Treasurer’s comments that:

An appropriately resourced ASIC will benefit all Australians by maintaining the integrity of Australia’s financial framework and ensuring ongoing confidence in the Australian financial markets.

Doesn’t the fact that ASIC required a 25 per cent increase in funding to be appropriately resourced simply confirm that the Howard government has failed to appropriately resource ASIC to date? How many mum and dad investors could have been protected from schemes like Westpoint if ASIC had, in the Treasurer’s words, been ‘appropriately resourced’ before now?