Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

What can I say? This motion today is just money for jam. It really just proves what we have been saying for a long time, and that is that the Labor Party is the party for the big end of town. I will slightly disagree with the wording of my good friend and colleague Senator Bragg, whose motion says, 'The failure of Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones to appropriately consult.' I'd actually disagree with that because, as it turns out, he got all the consulting he needed. He got a phone call from former Queensland Labor Premier Anna Bligh, who of course is now the head of the Australian Banking Association. If you want a good example of just how close the big end of town and the banks are to the Labor Party, look no further than the head of the Australian Banking Association: former Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.

What was Anna Bligh famous for up in Queensland? We call her the minister for privatisation. She sold all the assets that belonged to the Queensland people. She sold the Queensland forestry plantations, which are freehold, for five times earnings. She sold the Port of Brisbane for six times earnings—a 99-year lease for six times earnings. She gave our assets away to her mates in the big end of town and to her mates in the superannuation funds, and she has got her pay back. She's got her 30 pieces of silver.

Who is the master puppet pulling the strings behind former Queensland Premier Anna Bligh? No lesser person than the current minister for agriculture, Senator Murray Watt, who was the chief of staff for all this. We know that the Labor Party is in thick with the big end of town. We hear Senator Watt talking all the time about how he engages with industry groups in agriculture. Let me tell you: as a sixth-generation farmer, we don't engage with industry groups. We're too busy out in the paddock working to be hanging out with the big end of town and the blowhards. No, this is not a party that cares about the workers.

The history of the Labor Party and getting into bed with the big banks goes back. A great example is how they sold the CBA. Senator Ayres was talking earlier about how there was all this bad behaviour in the big banks. I'll tell you why there's bad behaviour in the big banks. It's because you privatised CBA without any regulation. At the same time, you introduced superannuation where, basically, the workers have their money taken from them and given to financial planners, many of whom started working for the big banks. Remember the nineties when CBA bought Colonial Mutual, the National Bank bought National Mutual, Westpac did a joint venture with Bankers Trust and ANZ did a deal with ING. It's the big banks again.

I often say that the industry super funds are good mates with Labor, but it's also the private sector that is very good mates with Labor. As I've always said—and I have to sometimes remind my colleagues on this side of the chamber—Robert Menzies himself said in the Forgotten People speech that the rich and powerful can look after themselves. He made it very clear that we're about people that want to get out of bed every day and put their nose to the grindstone.

The Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, doesn't know if he's Arthur or Martha, because he thought he was going to get in there and save the world. He's suddenly realised that the lobbyists—and I spoke about this last week and the Courier Mail reported it—should disclose who pays them. It's not just political parties, because I'll tell you who's pulling the strings in the world, and it's not us. I've often thought about engaging a lobbyist myself to get something done around here because as an elected member, an elected representative of the people, I'm not getting much done.

A phone call from Anna Bligh, and Stephen Jones, the member for Whitlam, suddenly pulls the fees for the big end of town. That is just so typical of the Labor Party of today. They tell me that the seismographs are going off in Bathurst, where Ben Chifley is rolling in his grave. King O'Malley is also rolling in his grave. He is the great man who actually started the Commonwealth Bank way back when, and it was also part of the Reserve Bank, and they actually had a business bank and they funded this stuff.

I think the Labor Party need to take a really good look at themselves because this is not a party that stands up for the working class anymore. They are a party for the big end of town. We know that and we aren't surprised, because the first thing Stephen Jones did was remove the disclosure requirements for super funds. This guy, he's the minister for—as the Australian Financial Reviewthe dog's proverbial— (Time expired)