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

Accrued national debt, Senator Abetz, touched some $603 billion. You moan about government debt: what about national debt, which grew by a staggering 100 per cent over that decade to $603 billion? National debt, government debt and also personal debt are all-important issues that need to be considered. In the past decade, unfortunately, we saw in Australia—though not so much, I would have to say, as in the US or Europe—levels of irresponsible lending. What did the former government do about irresponsible lending? It did not do anything in a regulatory or supervisory sense, and we are unfortunately seeing some of the impacts of that now in Australian communities.