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

I thank the shadow Treasurer for his question. I certainly do welcome an informed discussion about our financial system and about the relative strength of the various components of our financial system. I welcome a discussion about the need for greater competitive forces in our financial system and the need for there to be greater competition against our four major banks. Those four major banks are large, well capitalised and of course very profitable.

This involves a couple of essential elements of policy that need to be understood very clearly. Our four major banks have done well because in this country we have regulated our financial system much better than many other countries, but our major banks have done better because of the bank guarantees put in place at the height of the financial crisis by this government and opposed by those opposite.

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