Jim Turnour (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. It is important to remember that short-term merchant banker greed created this crisis, and Malcolm Turnbull’s short-term merchant banker politics is not helping the government steer a passage through it. Rather than focus on the national interest, the opposition continues to seek to play politics with critical pieces of legislation like these amendments to the Corporations Act to better regulate short selling. The Leader of the Opposition is consistently inconsistent as he seeks to play politics with every measure the government brings forward. Whether it is on the Rudd government’s measure to protect bank deposits, or on our economic security package to stimulate the economy, or on these short-selling measures—which the Leader of the Opposition has sought to delay, then support, and no doubt will oppose in time—the opposition has taken more positions than the Kama Sutra. When the Australian people are looking to their government to continue to act quickly, decisively and responsibly to protect the Australian economy, we continue not only to battle the global financial crisis but an irresponsible opposition. Double happiness is a Chinese symbol of marriage. Australians do not expect the opposition to be married to our policies, but the Australian community has become tired of the opposition’s short-term politics.

This legislation is important to maintaining continued confidence in our equity and financial markets, yet we have an opposition who wanted to delay this legislation into the new year. The Selection of Bills Committee sent this legislation off to the Senate Standing Committee on Economics and it was to report quickly, this year. Sadly, I understand that coalition senators, rather than act responsibly, sought to delay the report from the economics committee and wanted to push the reporting off to 6 February next year, effectively delaying this legislation. It took the Greens and Independents to come together with the Rudd government senators to ensure that this bill is now before the parliament. I understand the order for the delay came directly from the Leader of the Opposition. This is grossly irresponsible, given the real need for certainty and transparency in our markets to build confidence. Trying to delay this bill is pretty typical of the behaviour we have seen on a whole range of other policy initiatives we have put forward, whether on bank deposits or our economic security package. They say they are going to support it, then the next day they are opposing it and they will do what they can to play politics with it, not in the national interest but their own short-term political interests. We all know the Leader of the Opposition is a former merchant banker, and that the Gordon Gekkos of this world take a short-term view. They will say anything and do anything to make a dollar. Sadly, the Leader—

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