Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

This government has extensively assisted smaller lenders. One of the streams of the government's banking reform package was dedicated to supporting smaller lenders. This included investment in the residential mortgage backed securities market of some $20 billion, and we know that smaller lenders rely heavily on the RMBS market to fund their lending. But the fact is those opposite cannot hide behind the argument about smaller lenders when they have a government that has stepped in to assist that sector. They cannot hide behind the argu­ment around smaller lenders because the reality is that what they are actually arguing for is barriers to competition. That is exactly what the opposition are arguing for—they want Australian consumers to pay higher exit fees. The question is this: why are the opposition so intent on demanding that Australian consumers pay more fees? (Time expired)