Mr BOWEN (Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs, and Assistant Treasurer) (6:12 PM) —I think the honourable member opposite has a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority does not release credit ratings of individual institutions. There are credit rating agencies that do that. The honourable member might be aware of them: one of them is called Standard and Poor’s and another one is called Moody’s—they are the big two; there are probably others. If Standard and Poor’s or Moody’s changes the credit rating of a financial institution, they make it public.

As I have said, I meet with APRA regularly, the Treasurer meets with APRA regularly and they brief us fully on any matters which may be causing them concern. I can reveal to the honourable member that the consistent briefing that I have received from APRA since taking over the portfolio in November last year is that the fundamentals of Australian financial institutions are sound and that Australian consumers can be confident that the Australian financial system and the component parts of it are in much better shape than those in, say, the United States or the United Kingdom.