Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker:

  (k) anything less than a Royal Commission into misconduct in the banking and financial services industry amounts to a cover-up orchestrated by the Prime Minister and his Liberal Government; and

(2) agree on:

  (a) Wednesday, 20 April 2016, being appointed as a sitting day; and

  (b) priority being accorded over all other business at that sitting to the following motion to be moved by the Leader of the Opposition: That the House calls on the Prime Minister to request His Excellency the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia issue Letters Patent to establish a Royal Commission to inquire into misconduct in the banking and financial services industry.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition from moving the following motion forthwith—That the House:

(1) notes that:

  (a) confidence and trust in the financial services industry has been shaken by ongoing revelations of scandals and tens of thousands of Australians being ripped off;

  (b) retirees have had their retirement savings gutted;

  (c) families have been rorted out of hundreds and thousands of dollars;

  (d) small business owners have lost everything;

  (e) life insurance policy holders have been denied justice;

  (f) it is clear from the breadth and scope of the allegations that the problems in this industry go beyond any one bank or type of financial institution;

  (g) on 6 April 2016, the Prime Minister himself said “There have been many troubling incidents over recent times for them simply to be dismissed”;

  (h) Liberal and National parliamentarians have defied the Prime Minister and the banks and publicly supported a Royal Commission;

  (i) Australia has one of the strongest banking systems in the world but we need Australians to have confidence in their banks and financial institutions, to uncover and deal with unethical behaviour that compromises that confidence;

  (j) there are reports that Mr Turnbull and Mr Morrison have been secretly colluding with the banks to concoct a plan to protect them from a Royal Commission;

  (k) anything less than a Royal Commission into misconduct in the banking and financial services industry amounts to a cover-up orchestrated by the Prime Minister and his Liberal Government; and

(2) agree on:

  (a) Wednesday, 20 April 2016, being appointed as a sitting day; and

  (b) priority being accorded over all other business at that sitting to the following motion to be moved by the Leader of the Opposition: That the House calls on the Prime Minister to request His Excellency the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia issue Letters Patent to establish a Royal Commission to inquire into misconduct in the banking and financial services industry.

Australians have finally found something the Prime Minister believes in—covering up for the big banks!

See this speech in context