Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question without notice is to the Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law, Senator Sherry. I ask the minister, following up on his serious concerns about credit rating agencies and the role that they may have played in some aspects of the recent financial problems, if it is true that credit agencies are paid by the financial institutions that they rate in Australia? How is the government ensuring that the $8 billion worth of AAA rated residential mortgage-backed securities that it has directed the Australian Office of Financial Management to purchase genuinely deserve that AAA rating and that public funds are not being put at undue risk?