Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Hansard source

I said that I hope that at the next election it will hand over to us. As my colleague said in this chamber just a few minutes ago, it seems always to be the case that Labor gets in, spends the money, creates a problem and then we are required to fix up the mess. Then, when we do, we get pilloried, as the Queensland government and the New South Wales government are getting pilloried on a daily basis in this House for trying to get the books in order, for trying to get some semblance of sound financial management back into government. No doubt we will confront the same problem.

Finally, I just want to make the observation that we should not stop with a government retail bond market. There is every good reason to look to a corporate retail bond market. It is grossly underdeveloped at the moment. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to really access. It has a concentration of issuers and relatively short maturities. The key to adding genuine depth and liquidity in debt markets is through the serious development of a corporate retail bond market. Once this bill is through and bedded down, all eyes should turn to that exercise.

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