Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

We needed to act decisively—to members of the Liberal-National opposition. In these sorts of circumstances, you need to get in there, recognise there is a serious problem and attempt to head the problem off with decisive action. Again, there are a number of governments around the world which are taking similar actions to our economic stimulus package. Unfortunately they are not in the same budget position as this government is, after its fiscally responsible, indeed conservative, budget was handed down in May. It was a very strong budget with a strong surplus that we built up. I must say that, unfortunately, the now Liberal-National Party opposition has been very negative. They have opposed bill after bill in this Senate chamber and have not recognised the seriousness of this economic crisis and the necessity of ensuring that we had a substantial fiscal surplus as a buffer in these turbulent economic times.

A number of speakers opposite have referred to the number of inquiries. Yes, we have had inquiries, but we have taken action. I will give a couple of examples. Under the former Liberal-National Party government, there were five inquiries to transfer the regulation of financial services from the states and territories to the national government, creating one national financial regulator—all the more important because of what has happened in the US. They had five inquiries in 12 years, and the former Liberal-National Party did nothing. They did not act on those five inquiries. We have had one inquiry and we have acted. We decided: one single national standard financial market regulation and supervision in Australia. That is one example of a positive outcome from the cooperation between the states and the Commonwealth. It is not the bleak picture that Senator McGauran and others opposite have painted. This stimulus package is appropriately targeted to help those who need help most in the current environment. (Time expired)

Question put:

That the amendment (Senator Bob Brown’s) be agreed to.