Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It is quite extraordinary that we are dealing with legislation and the government cannot give an estimate of the revenue raising. But I am sure we are going to find the potential risk that is incorporated in this legislation. Difficult as it might be, the worst thing you can do is to come to a parliament with legislation saying ‘we have no idea and we will tell you after the event’. We are here as legislators who are responsible for knowing what we are getting into with legislation, and the minister ought to have that information available. I go to David Crowe’s piece on page 7 of today’s Australian Financial Review. It says:

Banks with an AA rating will have to pay a fee of 70 basis points on debt raised overseas when they draw on the guarantee on wholesale funding. Institutions with an A rating will have to pay 100 basis points while those with a BBB rating will pay 150 basis points.

“It is proposed that where an institution has a split rating, the predominant rating is to be used,” Treasury said. “If there is no predominant rating the lowest rating is to be used.”

I ask the minister: is that observation or that assertion correct? If it is correct, has he had any indication from any bank that it required this legislation to enable it to proceed to borrow overseas? If so, could he outline the degree of borrowing anticipated by that bank or by any banks or financial institutions which approached the government?