Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer advise the House whether a BBB-rated bank would be charged a higher fee to access the government’s 100 per cent guarantee for bank wholesale funding than a AA-rated bank?

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

These are all matters that are being dealt with by the Treasury as we speak.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

It is a very important thing that must be put together. I do not intend to debate those commercial matters on the floor of the parliament, given all of the circumstances that we are in at the moment in terms of the global financial system. It will be put together—

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You don’t know. You just don’t know.

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

This will be done on a case-by-case basis. That is what it will be done on, and it is not my job to make those commercial decisions on the floor of the parliament. No Treasurer would do that. These arrangements will be developed by the Treasury. They will be transparent, they will be public, they will be capable of public scrutiny, but I do not intend to debate them or to throw them onto the floor of the parliament or to make my commercial judgements, which must be made by the officials.