Page 872 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 25 July 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
context it is a great shame to see the great corporations of Australia still getting loans at relatively low rates because they are monster loans. They come out, when one goes through all of the fine print, according to some of the best monetary journals, at 12 and 13 per cent loans still. If you want to borrow a lot of money you can still get a low interest loan. Who is subsidising all that?
We have heard Mr Langmore, the member for Fraser, speak often on that subject. One would think that the Chief Minister could listen to Mr Langmore, her party colleague, and see what we can do in terms of concrete measures to assist the people in strife at the moment.
One hopes the housing review being undertaken by Minister Grassby's ministry will get bipartisan support in terms of its recommendations to ease the burden and to introduce a progressive equity purchasing scheme for a number of families which can no longer handle home ownership and which have to go back into the tenancy market.
As well, the Government needs to look very carefully at its capacity to refinance a number of the high interest loans before those people become welfare casualties at large in the community. Mr Speaker, I welcome the statement made by Mr Stefaniak and regret that we cannot go further with concrete measures.
MR BERRY (Minister for Community Services and Health) (4.26): Firstly, Mr Speaker, I must express some regret about the level to which debate has sunk on this issue of interest rates, in particular from the first speaker, and I will get to the second speaker later. Members in the chamber, however few, were unable to hear any great solutions to all of the problems which Mr Stefaniak attempted to identify in his opening remarks. One thing that I noticed Mr Stefaniak did not blame on the interest rate policies of the Federal Government was the quality of the weather somewhere or other, although I must admit after listening to the tenor of his remarks for a while I somewhat expected it.
In relation to Mr Collaery, I would have to say that he is up to his usual standard, and capably spoke for the required time but it was a bit low on content as usual. I must say the rhetoric which I heard was very similar to that which I heard in the Joh for Canberra campaign, when every negative aspect of anything that was likely to happen in the future was seized upon. I must say that a good member of the Residents Rally party, Ms Katharine West, headed that campaign.
However, Mr Speaker, I am quite happy to register my concern at the current high level of interest rates. In particular, I would like to point out that the Federal Government's monetary policy cannot have regard to differences in levels of activity, economic conditions and rates of growth between regions. Given that some reduction
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .