Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

These businesses, as you say, have to show profit for the last three years, so these businesses should be going on alright. It goes back to the competitiveness of this. I quote:

As reflected in the Senate Selection of Bills Committee's reasons for referring the Bill to the Senate Economics Committee for inquiry, there are concerns that the ABGF may cause competition issues in Australia's financial markets. From the supply side, other providers of equity finance may be disadvantaged—it may crowd out their ability to provide equity capital because of the better terms available for those seeking funding under the ABGF.

We hear from economists, and I'm going to let the people know what Adam Creighton, the economics editor at The Australian newspaper, said:

The Australian Business Growth Fund … will be another case of crony capitalism, bringing together the government and the biggest financial institutions in a cosy venture that will crowd out existing private sector investors … Not content with giving the big banks the right to join a fund that will enjoy artificially low borrowing costs by virtue of government involvement, the banking regulator even has agreed to pervert prudential regulation so the banks can treat high-risk investments through the fund as loans.

This double whammy of market manipulation will ensure the ABGF has a huge advantage in the market for providing equity finance to small to medium enterprises.

What do you say to that, Minister?