Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will repeat that. Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey said:

… I would say that the Treasurer is not using the obvious levers available to put pressure on the banks to stop them from raising interest rates outside of the changes brought about by the Reserve Bank itself.

He then went on to say:

Well there are a raft of levers that are available that may be punitive in measure when it comes to the banks, but the banks ought to understand they rely heavily on a government and a parliament that delivers good will and if the banks trade off that good will to gouge the Australian consumers, then if the Government doesn’t move to put pressure on the banks then the parliament will.

This statement of encouraging interference of an independent body is amusing coming from a frontbencher of a party that prides itself on supporting private enterprise.

Treasurer Wayne Swan labelled Mr Hockey’s remarks as a challenge to independence and walking away on economic reform. Even the Secretary to the Department of the Treasury, Ken Henry, dismissed his ideas. He said:

It would be rather difficult to have a central bank independently operating monetary policy through interest rates and at the same time another body, ie the Government, regulating those interest rates. That doesn’t sit too well together.

The International Monetary Fund released its World Economic Outlook earlier this month, confirming that Australia is in a strong fiscal position and continues to outperform other advanced economies. Other nations are dealing with high unemployment while we are leading the way with strong economic growth and job creation. The IMF has predicted unemployment will remain high in advanced economies at more than eight per cent for the next two years. The United States’ unemployment rate is at 9.6 per cent and in the Euro area it is 10.1 per cent. In comparison, Australia’s unemployment is at 5.1 per cent.

If you examine the facts, it is clear that the Labor government has managed a strong economy to the envy of the rest of the developed world. We kept people employed and successfully created jobs. We refurbished our schools and provided new facilities that they would not have otherwise received. We have upgraded roads and provided funding to upgrade the rail systems, funding for community infrastructure, funding for social housing and funding for defence housing. We have implemented schemes like Paid Parental Leave to ensure parents retain a relationship with their employers. We provided a boost to our economy through stimulus payments to our taxpayers to curb the GFC and keep Australia out of recession.