Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This government sure is full of people whose egos exceeds their capacity. The minister may not have heard, but in my second reading speech and opening words to moving my amendment I commended the bill and said we were going to support it. It does some very good things, and that is why we are giving it our support. And what I also said was, 'Can we extend this principle to ATM fees?' Then the minister just could not help himself and decided to have a very long tail to his answer to my question and said, 'We're not able to get up and talk about the cost structure of providing ATM fees.'

The minister may not be aware but the Reserve Bank has actually looked into this and, coming out of all that, there has been a finding that the average cost of a third-party provision of ATM services—a bank providing it for another bank's customer—is around 77c. So this issue has been inquired into, and we have brought private members' bills before to this parliament to try to address the issue, underpinned by exactly that research. So the facts are out there and they have been put before this place many, many times.

I can only take from what the minister has said that he does not believe that the current levels of ATM fees being charged are excessive. He does not believe that a $3, $2.50 or $2 ATM fee is worthy of the attention of this parliament, so I will not be holding my breath for the minister to come back with any proposals. It is clear from his answer that this government does not see ATM fees as excessive, despite the significant evidence available and everybody knowing, when they see that message come up on the screen as they are getting their card out of the ATM, that they are being charged $2.50. Everyone knows it is a problem, and all we were seeking to do is extend a very good principle in a bill that we have commended on credit card fees to ATM fees.

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