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

Like our medical industry, our financial industry has been captured by the big end of town. Over the last 30 years we have seen thousands of bank branches closed and insurance services withdrawn, making it harder and harder for small businesses and charities to operate.

I've been contacted this week by a charity that has been offered a 4,000 per cent increase in their premium for public liability insurance. They've had to shop around. Luckily, they've found an insurance provider that has offered them a 300 per cent increase in their public liability insurance. A small-business man who works in a marina has had a $2,000 increase in his public liability insurance cost. We've got agricultural shows that are struggling to survive because they can't get public liability insurance. These costs, whether it's public insurance liability or housing insurance, need to be dealt with.

The only solution—the only way forward—is to bring back a public bank and a government insurance office. The neoliberal privatisation of the early nineties has been a complete and utter disaster for financial services in this country. APRA, ASIC and the RBA aren't doing their job of making sure that financial service providers are even out there.

Furthermore, we must make sure that the RBA isn't allowed to become completely independent of parliament; that is also a part of the problem. We've seen that recently: the Governor of the RBA, Michele Bullock, refused to hand over minutes between the RBA and the Bank for International Settlements. They have made a complete and utter disaster of the housing market in this country.