First of all, whilst I listened carefully to what the member for Goldstein had to say—which unfortunately is not something his leadership team does very often—I waited for the evidence of the crisis which proves that in fact the opposition's contentions are right.

Let me be clear here today: this government takes very seriously what is happening in Europe. There is no question that what is happening in Europe is important. It is important for no other reason than that the banks' funding is quite often sourced from overseas—a large portion of it. But having said that there are three submissions I would like to make to the House today as to why the opposition are simply scaremongering.

The first one is that I think they are guilty of not having one of those side mirrors which say 'objects in the mirror may appear closer than they actually are'. The reality is that the problems in Europe are not necessarily quite as close to infecting Australia in the serious way in which those catastrophisers opposite would say. In fact, it is just plain ridiculous.

To read the full speech please visit my Treasury website.