Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

This is where Senator Cameron should listen, because, as I said yesterday, if we don't learn from history we are condemned to repeat it. The rules Mr Shorten wrote had harsh and unfair consequences. Community groups trying to access emergency accounts were slowed down by up to six months. A farmer was unable to sow his crop after years of drought because money in an emergency account, literally for a rainy day, was not available to him. It had been seized by the Labor government. There are farmers around Australia who, when they are experiencing drought, who are waiting for a rainy day, do have cash in a bank account which they might not touch for two or three years—and in comes Bill Shorten, who puts his hand in their pockets. A mother and son were unable to visit a dying relative overseas because they could not get access to a bank account which Labor had seized. These are real live examples— (Time expired)