Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) the disruption to stock market trading caused by a media release which falsely purported to announce the withdrawal of a $1.2 billion loan facility to Whitehaven Coal by the ANZ Bank,

(ii) the impersonation of an ANZ Bank officer designed to further this hoax,

(iii) the tendency of such deceptions to undermine confidence in Australia's stock market,

(iv) various endorsements of these deceptions, and

(v) that such endorsements are inconsistent with concepts of economic responsibility, participatory democracy, efforts to enforce standards of media reporting and the rule of law; and

(b) rejects attempts to justify these deceptions with the notion of virtuous malfeasance.