David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hear the member opposite suggest that they do support the measures, and we welcome their support. But, for people who support the measures, there is a lot of criticism and a lot of nay-saying going on on that side. I ask two questions of the speakers to come. Firstly, what is the opposition’s position in relation to the $100,000 cap? Do they still retain that position, or do they support the view of their leader—at least on one occasion—when he said they have now abandoned it? Listening to the shadow Treasurer, all I hear is a continued adherence to that policy even though the Leader of the Opposition has since abandoned it.

They carp and they argue about the unintended consequences of providing the guarantee and the impact it has been having on those institutions that fall outside of the ADI net. I ask them a simple question: are they proposing that we extend the guarantee to those institutions? Because if you listen to the shadow Treasurer, it almost sounds as though that is the only conclusion you can draw from the argument she is putting. Are the opposition seriously suggesting that we should extend the coverage of this guarantee to managed funds and other investment funds that are not regulated in the same fashion as the authorised deposit-taking institutions that are currently proposed to be the beneficiaries of this scheme? The member for Aston has gone quiet on that one, but I am sure that we will be enlightened by subsequent speakers in this debate, because if they are not prepared to put up— (Time expired)

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