Mr CREAN (3:09 PM) —My question is again to the Minister for Financial Services and Regulation. It relates to HIH and follows his last answer. Minister, are you satisfied that APRA has kept you properly advised on all occasions and has properly discharged its supervisory functions?

Mr HOCKEY (Minister for Financial Services and Regulation) —It is not for me to give a running commentary on APRA. The reason why it is not for me to give a running commentary on APRA is that the focus of all the entities at the moment—that is, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Insurance Council of Australia and all state governments—should be on the interests of the policyholders. As APRA indicated over the weekend and I am happy to confirm, since October-November last year APRA has been working diligently with HIH to try to resolve any problems that might be associated with any changes in the financial state of HIH for policyholders. This has been a particularly important step because it has delivered to policyholders some substantial benefits. For example, the Allianz deal was announced in September 2000 and commenced on 1 January 2001. That deal between HIH and Allianz covers one million policyholders and has delivered on the fact that all of the following personal and domestic insurance policies, which were current—

Mr Crean —I raise a point of order as to relevance, Mr Speaker. The question was: have they kept him properly advised and have they discharged their function—

Mr SPEAKER —The Deputy Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. I had noted the question and felt that any comment that the minister was making about correspondence between him and APRA was entirely relevant to the question.

Mr HOCKEY —The Allianz deal, which APRA has approved, covers private motor, compulsory third party, private pleasure craft and home building and contents, and it has also sought to protect small business and rural and commercial insurance policies. Allianz paid out $45 million in the first two months of 2000, obviously as a direct result of the deal between HIH and Allianz. The second major deal involves NRMA and was announced on 14 March and came into force on 15 March. I remind the House that HIH went into provisional liquidation on 15 March. That covers 8,000 policyholders, covering workers compensation schemes. Then QBE, which is the third part of the deal to protect HIH policyholders, originally only covered anyone travelling on or after 17 March. That deal was announced on 6 March, came into force on 17 March and protected 750,000 policyholders who were travelling. All the efforts of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission are focused on protecting policyholders. I hope that the Labor Party supports that policy.