Mr MARLES (3:21 PM) —My question is to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation. Why is it important to maintain confidence in Australia’s economic regulatory arrangements, and why have the actions of key regulators been called into question?

Mr TANNER (Minister for Finance and Deregulation) —I thank the member for Corio for his question. Confidence is a central issue in the current economic circumstances facing Australia and indeed the rest of the world. That is confidence not just in wider business conditions but in particular in the strength and integrity of our regulators. It is also particularly important internationally, and that is reflected in decisions being made by international investors and financial institutions with respect to Australia. Those decisions are in turn reflected in things like the interest rates that they charge Australian financial institutions to borrow money from them—which in turn are reflected in things like interest rates that ordinary working people have to pay on their home loans, their credit cards and other financial products.

Confidence in the regulatory structure and confidence in the regulators is critical, particularly in the current circumstances where the government is facing very challenging circumstances as a result of the global financial crisis. Any suggestion that our regulators are not rigorous, are not impartial and that they allow politics to intrude into their decision making undermines confidence in the Australian regulatory arrangements both in this country and overseas. If you want to see examples of that, without naming them, all you need to do is have a look at one or two countries overseas where they have genuinely opaque, genuinely politicised regulatory arrangements and see what that does for confidence amongst international investors and international financial institutions.

Undermining confidence in our regulators seriously threatens the integrity of the Australian economy. The suggestion that the Australian Treasury has been involved in cooking the books, in publishing false forecasts and the suggestion that the Australian independent Reserve Bank has taken political decisions with respect to interest rates undermines world confidence and undermines Australian confidence in our economic regulators.

I am asked why these attacks are happening, why our regulators are being impugned and traduced, why the Secretary of the Treasury is being accused of lying, why he is being accused of cooking the books and why the Reserve Bank governor is being accused of manipulating interest rates for political purposes. The answer is straightforward: this is an orchestrated assault by the Liberal Party. It is according to a plan. It is according to a pattern. It is not a one-off event. It is according to an orchestrated plan on the part of the Liberal Party under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition, because the Liberal Party now represents the shonks, the spivs and the sharks who have all crawled out from under rocks as a result of the global financial crisis.

Mr Hockey —Mr Speaker, on a point of order: not only is this the same answer he gave a little earlier in question time—obviously he did not get it up for the cameras, the grab—but now it is irrelevant to the question that was asked. We will have a war on relevance in this situation.

The SPEAKER —Order! The question was in order and the minister is responding to the question.

Mr Abbott —Mr Speaker, on a point of order: these comments are precisely the same comments that you asked the minister to withdraw before. You should ask him to withdraw them again because they are offensive and frankly it is a defiance of the chair that he has tried to repeat them in this way.

The SPEAKER —The comments that the minister was asked to withdraw directly reflected upon the Leader of the Opposition and that is why they were withdrawn. On this occasion it is unclear in the way in which the comments were put together whether the minister was referring specifically to members of this chamber.

Mr Abbott —Further to your comments and on the point of order, something does not become any less offensive because it has been recouched in that way. I certainly believe it is a very offensive reflection on me. I think most of my colleagues would regard themselves as being offensively reflected upon and these comments should be withdrawn.

The SPEAKER —Consistent with the way in which these things have been handled in the past, there have been a number of occasions when I have witnessed similar sorts of accusations being made to large collectives, to which I may have thought I belonged, that may have disturbed me. I think that is the case here. I am indicating to the member for Warringah that the earlier withdrawal was a completely different subject and topic because it was directly reflecting upon the Leader of the Opposition.

Mr Abbott —Mr Speaker, if—

The SPEAKER —No, the member for Warringah does not have the call yet. The member for Warringah on the point of order.

Mr Abbott —Mr Speaker, I appreciate your further entertaining me on this, but if these words were rightly judged to be offensive when directed to the Leader of the Opposition, they are equally offensive when directed to all members of the opposition. I ask you, exercising your discretion and judgement regarding the standards of this House—

The SPEAKER —My difficulty is that, in defending myself, I would have to repeat the remarks that I asked the minister to withdraw. They were completely—to use a colloquial expression—a different kettle of fish to the way in which this has been put to the chamber.

Mr Truss —Mr Speaker—

The SPEAKER —No, I am not entertaining any further points of order on this matter. I think that when people ask me to go and review circumstances, I am happy for people to go over the circumstances and they will come to perhaps other conclusions.

Mr Tuckey —Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I draw your attention to standing orders 88, 89 and 90 and, more particularly, the reference there in the major heading to ‘disorder’. The remarks of the Minister for Finance and Deregulation are an invitation to disorder and if he wants us to talk about Wayne Swan running around with bags of money in Queensland and the disgrace that was delivered to him, let him suspend standing orders and we will get into the shonks.

The SPEAKER —The member for O’Connor will withdraw.

Mr Tuckey —I withdraw to let you get on with this shonky business.

The SPEAKER —The member for O’Connor will withdraw.

Mr Tuckey interjecting—

The SPEAKER —The member for O’Connor will withdraw.

Mr Tuckey —I withdraw, but you can see why these things happen.

The SPEAKER —I name the member for O’Connor without warning, and this is for three days.