George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

No, we will not; and I will explain to you why we will not. Either Mr Shorten does not understand the purpose of a royal commission or, if he does, he is irresponsibly and recklessly calling for a royal commission well knowing that it is not the appropriate way to deal with identified problems. Last week, Mr Turnbull gave a speech at the Westpac 199th anniversary luncheon and, during the course of that speech, he did make a number of chastising remarks about the banking industry. So the suggestion that the government is somehow being indifferent to a problem, or averting its eyes from a problem, is entirely wrong.

Unlike the Heydon royal commission into the trade union movement—where there was widespread systemic and documented illegality, criminality and corruption—no-one, not even someone as reckless as Mr Shorten, has gone so far as to suggest that there is widespread illegality, criminality and corruption in the Australian banking sector. The Australian banking sector is one of the strongest financial industries in the world—and, Senator Dastyari, that is the achievement of your side of politics as well as my side of politics—because the institutional structure that undergirds and polices and regulates the Australian financial system is a very strong set of safeguards.