Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I will answer. I am going to go all the way through it. This is a very important question. It is one that the government is very, very concerned about and has been very active on. But you have got to understand the background. It is quite complex, and those opposite may have some difficulty understanding it. It is true that the big banks have been very profitable, and that is why the government was absolutely insistent that if there were a cut in the cash rate then that should be passed on—and it was passed on, and that is a very good thing. But the government is concerned about the degree of competition in the mortgage market, and that is one of the reasons we have been so insistent on putting in place a bank-switching package, something those opposite could not manage to do in over 12 years.

It is also the case that the securitisation market has dried up because of events in global markets. That is true as well and that is producing a situation where the market is less competitive. Of course, that outlook changes by the day and by the week, given events in global financial markets. That is why I have made it very clear on a number of occasions publicly that should further action be required to put further competitive forces into that market then the government would take the appropriate steps at the appropriate time. We acted earlier in the year when it was very clear there was not enough liquidity in the market. There were not enough government bonds and we put more out there. We brought legislation into this parliament to issue further government bonds—

See this speech in context