Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank honourable members who have contributed to this debate on the Banking Amendment (Unclaimed Money) Bill 2013. The bill exempts reactivated accounts from being reported and transferred to the Commonwealth. These are accounts that technically meet the current definition of unclaimed moneys or where there has been a recent transaction to indicate that the account is not unclaimed. Under current legislation banks are required to report or transfer to the Commonwealth all accounts that are unclaimed as at the applicable assessment date. In some cases banks, building societies and credit unions may have allowed customers to transact on accounts after the assessment date. This bill ensures that, where an account holder has reactivated an account by making a transaction after being assessed as unclaimed, the account will not be transferred to the Commonwealth unnecessarily. By reducing the number of accounts transferred to the Commonwealth, these changes will allow the government to focus its resources on reuniting accounts with their rightful owners, where the accounts are genuinely lost.

The bill also allows the government to return funds to a financial institution if the institution has inappropriately transferred an account to the Commonwealth or if the institution has reimbursed the account holder prior to a refund request being processed. This bill will assist the government to achieve its objective to reunite more Australians with their moneys and protect their money from erosion by fees and charges. I commend this bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Administrator recommending appropriation announced.

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