Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The axe was falling on the last Westpac branch in my electorate, in the Lockyer Valley. Last week Westpac announced that they'd be closing their last branch in the electorate, but this afternoon I'm pleased to advise the House that Westpac has decided to postpone the proposed closure of the Gatton branch, along with eight other regional branches across Australia, while the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee, led by Senator Canavan, run their inquiry into regional banking services. I want to acknowledge the state member for Lockyer, Jim McDonald, and the Lockyer Valley mayor, Tanya Milligan, for their extensive advocacy for the community over the last two weeks.

You can understand banks, with their responsibility to shareholders, leaving communities that are dying. But I can assure you that the Lockyer Valley is far from being on its economic knees. In the last 12 to 18 months, we have seen a new Bunnings arrive, a new Aldi, a new Bridgestone tyres, a second McDonald's—not the type of economic environment that you would see bank closures in. Catholic education has invested in, constructed and completed a new secondary school. We would ask Westpac in their deliberations to, please, take a second look at the Lockyer Valley, because it's worth investing in.

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