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

The member for Canning not only attacked the Reserve Bank governor for political bias, he then accused him of creating chaos in the Australian economy. That is what he did. I am pleased he has had the sense to come into the House and to apologise. But that is not enough. What is required is a complete repudiation of his statements by the Leader of the Opposition. That is what is required. And what is required is an apology from the Leader of the Opposition for the slurs that have been cast on the Treasury secretary and for his personal attack on the Treasury secretary. That is what is required.

The Leader of the Opposition said that this financial crisis had just all been hyped up: ‘It was not all that serious. Don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about its impact on the stock market, don’t worry about its impact on our financial institutions.’ So I guess he would not be worried about the independence of our regulators or the independence of our Reserve Bank. We on this side of the House strongly support the regulators and we strongly support our impartial public servants, and both sides of the House should be doing this at a time of global financial crisis.

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