Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Banking Amendment (Covered Bonds) Bill 2011, in which there seems to be a new-found interest. The bill amends the Banking Act 1959. The coalition will support the bill primarily because the concept contained therein was our idea in the first place. It is not often that you get the opportunity to set policy from opposition, but this is one of those happy occasions. We originally proposed this initiative as part of our nine-point plan for banking reform in October 2010. A couple of months later the Treasurer followed suit and adopted it, as well as other elements of our plan, as part of his banking plan announced that December. This is a good thing because it demonstrates that the Treasurer, even if not capable of developing good policy of his own, is at least capable of recognising good policy when he sees it.

This piece of light-fingered policy development is a part of an ongoing trend. After all, it is far from being the first time the government has adopted one of the opposition's policies as its own. It did it with the PBO and it did it with labour force participation measures. It copied a large number of budget savings measures. Now it has done it with the covered bonds.

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