Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

All our economic ministers are very much focused on doing what they can to better prepare Australia for the circumstances we confront and to look at what we can do in the way of measures that help further protect our economy from these forces. The announcement on the weekend was that ASIC and the ASX took co-ordinated action over the weekend to limit the use of short selling, and that announcement was generally well received. That is a measure that will be built on over the next few weeks as we look to do what we can to protect what is a strong Australian economy but one which is not immune from the forces that we are seeing. I would have hoped and one would have thought, given that the new Leader of the Opposition, Mr Turnbull, offered some form of bipartisan support for tackling these serious economic issues, the opposition could have done better in terms of the questions it asked and its interest in what are serious matters. To trivialise these matters really shows how the opposition have lost any sense of economic responsibility.

If the opposition are serious about the economy, if they are serious about the issues confronting the Australian economy and if they are serious about the threats posed by those international forces, they will support the government in our efforts to protect the Australian economy by passing our budget and by ensuring we have the budget surplus that will help protect Australian families from these forces. Pass the budget and allow us to have the surplus that will protect us from these forces, and we will take any other measures we can to treat these issues seriously. I urge the opposition to join us in that effort rather than trying to trivialise these important issues. (Time expired)