Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to rise and put a question to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance. And it is interesting to come in here and hear others. I applaud the member for Wakefield for asking a question that has some content and some actual genuineness in it, fearing for an organisation that has been around for a long time. It was good to hear the parliamentary secretary answer and also talk about the consultative process that the coalition will take and has been known for taking.

The member for Rankin mentioned AFL before, and mentioned that he used to work for the member for Lilley. I have an interesting story.

Dr Chalmers interjecting—

I hear the member for Rankin applauding the fact that I am going to mention his previous boss. I wonder why he is not in here tonight to question the parliamentary secretary for finance. Maybe he has no credibility in this area to ask the question. It is good to see that he is still here, though.

But the story the parliamentary secretary reminded me of and that you might be interested to hear about is that the member for Lilley, when he went with the economic conservative genius of our time, Kevin Rudd, to New York in 2006, they rocked up to one of the major finance corporations in the US. A mate of mine, who I played football with at East Perth, was one of the head members there. They were called into this room, and they said, 'Come and meet these two politicians who are here from Australia.'

Dr Chalmers interjecting—

I hear the member for Rankin say, 'Tell me more'; he wants to hear more of the story. And the member for Wakefield is even smiling as well. So, they were called into this room, where they met these two politicians, and they spoke for about an hour and a half. And as they walked out, the people from this finance corporation in the US said, 'Thank God those two aren't in charge of the Australian economy.' And guess what happened? They got in charge, and look what they did: six years of absolute disaster.

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