Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying, in Australia about 20 per cent of the financial services market is still regulated by the states and territories. This includes areas such as nonbanks, margin lending, mortgage brokers, trustee companies and a range of consumer credit. The Labor government together with the state governments—and, I might say, the new Western Australian Liberal-National Party government—have all agreed that it is time to transfer regulation of these various areas from the states and territories to the Commonwealth with a single standard national regulation of all financial services in Australia. Whilst this is an important issue in terms of improving consumer protection and improving efficiency in our financial services market, it is also taken against the backdrop of the disasters that have occurred in the US, which, in part, were down to ineffective regulation of and consumer protection in the distribution of mortgage products in that country. (Time expired)