Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for her supplementary question. She is right: I did touch on some of the risks. The risk is primarily an opposition that only knows how to say no; an opposition that is no longer prepared to advocate reform but is only prepared to walk away from it. The fact is that much of Australia’s prosperity in current days has been built on the hard economic reforms over the last 2½ decades—economic reforms such as floating the dollar, deregulating the banking sector and putting in place the independence of the Reserve Bank. These decisions have, by and large, been achieved with bipartisan support, but what we know is that bipartisan consensus on these issues of economic importance is under threat. We have seen the shadow finance minister debating floating the dollar and we have seen the shadow Treasurer suggesting intervention in the competitive market for interest rates. The reality is we cannot risk a return to economic populism that is— (Time expired)