Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The guarantees around the world have largely—if not exclusively—been confined to banks, credit unions and building societies. There is an extensive range of other types of financial instruments—property trusts, margin lending, superannuation funds or pension funds and, in this case, commercial financing arrangements for car dealers—and, overwhelmingly, they were not the subject of a guarantee in other countries.

I accept that Senator Fifield has a considerably greater understanding of current economic circumstances and a considerably greater degree of financial literacy than Senator Abetz. But for Senator Abetz to come in here and assert that we are dealing with these sorts of consequences of the world financial crisis because the Labor government has carried out ‘acts of economic stupidity’, ‘economically irresponsible decisions’ and has exacerbated this is just patent nonsense. I referred in question time today to the observations of the OECD and the IMF, leading world economic institutions, who have pointed out that the Australian economy is doing very well. In fact, it is the best performing economy in the world compared to the 29 other countries in the OECD. Of comparable economies, the Australian economy is the only economy that is not in recession. And whatever people might think about the actions of this Labor government or the former Liberal government, I think the observations of the IMF and the OECD in terms of the government’s interventions—in supporting those interventions and drawing a reasonable conclusion that the Australian economy is stronger as a consequence—are correct. So the broad thesis and theme of critique from Senator Abetz is just totally wrong.

I would just make a couple of points about Senator Abetz’s comments—which were, I think, partly in defence of himself and partly a continued and unjustified attack on the Treasurer. In terms of the Treasurer’s comments to parliament on the Hansard of 4 June—and all of the debate, questions et cetera that have been posed over the last week—the Treasurer has done nothing that contradicted what he said in parliament on 4 June and he stands by those statements. On 4 June the Treasurer, Mr Swan, said:

… there have been numerous representations made to members of parliament from car dealers right around the country—numerous representations which have been forwarded on to my office and in turn forwarded on to the responsible officials in the Treasury for consideration. There is nothing abnormal about that.

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It is the case that Mr Grant made representations to my office, and he was referred on to the SPV, just like everybody else. I have no idea what the outcome of that was.

And, of course, there were others who were referred on to the SPV and the staff in Treasury—it was not just Mr Grant. There were inquiries from Mrs Kay Hull, National Party member for Riverina; Mr Bruce Billson, Liberal Party member for Dunkley; Mr James Bidgood, Labor member for Dawson; Mr Bernie Ripoll, Labor member for Oxley; Mr Rowan Ramsey, Liberal member for Grey; the Hon. Sharman Stone, Liberal Party member for Murray; and obviously some other Liberal and National party members. The Treasurer has said:

… I have had no discussions with the Prime Minister about this matter whatsoever—none whatsoever.

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… in the case of the Prime Minister and me, there were none.

On the Hansard of 15 June, the Treasurer said:

Mr Grant would have received the same assistance as any other car dealer who was referred through that process received.

The second fact is that Mr Grant received no special benefit from OzCar and no outcome whatsoever from Ford Credit. Fact 3: there were steps taken to help other dealers, and that has been borne out in the course of investigations. The Treasurer did this because there were jobs at stake in the community, as I have outlined in this legislation, and because it was his view in his office that the Treasury should do whatever they could to help dealers who approached the Treasurer’s office. The Executive Director of the Motor Trades Association of Australia, Mr Michael Delaney, said:

The treatment that Mr Grant, a member of mine, got was no different from the treatment all of my other members got on my intervention on their behalf to Mr Grech. They were all treated in the same way, and for the same good reason: there was no other way to do these things. In fact I think Mr Grant has been treated less well because he went to the Treasurer.

Over the last week in the middle of a world financial and economic crisis, we have seen a Liberal opposition that could make only one firm decision in the Senate. The one firm decision they could make was to defer the emissions trading scheme. They decided to put it off because they are so divided. Other areas in which they have decided to make decisions where they are clearly divided are the migration regulations and the alcopops tax. We have heard a lot about smoke from Senator Abetz. Whatever the smoke, I suggest that the fire has well and truly burnt the case that the opposition were trying to advance against the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, for the obvious reason they were relying on a fake email. I am sure a lot more will come out as a consequence of that.

This legislation is important. When I referred earlier to it being very unlikely the guarantee will be called upon and, hence, impact on the government’s bottom line, it is possible that the guarantee will be called upon but we think that is unlikely. Obviously, it is more likely that the special purpose vehicle will be called upon to provide financing in the case of car dealerships. This is an important part of the government’s response to the consequences of the global financial crisis. Any forced closure of otherwise viable car dealerships would have a direct and adverse impact on the Australian automotive industry, including component suppliers, at a time of significant economic challenges. This had potentially grave consequences for the Australian economy, hundreds of small businesses and thousands upon thousands of jobs. The passage of this bill is crucial to the successful operations of the OzCar SPV, and failure to pass this bill would risk the loss of thousands of Australian jobs in the automotive industry.

I am pleased to see the Liberal-National Party are supporting the legislation. They have spent the week scouring second-hand car yards. I suggest they refocus their attention on the issues of the day which will undoubtedly be issues for the next number of years: how to protect and cushion jobs in Australia in the face of this world economic and financial crisis. Nevertheless, I thank them for supporting this legislation. At least they have finally decided to do something positive in the face of this world financial and economic crisis.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.