Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to raise an issue that has come to my attention in my electorate concerning a constituent called Cheryl Daly. On 18 February this year, Cheryl went to a Rock Building Society ATM on the Capricorn coast to withdraw $360 from her Commonwealth Bank account. As it turned out, the ATM did not dispense her any cash. The customers following Cheryl in line to use the ATM were told that it was empty. Cheryl immediately went to another ATM to check her account balance and found that, indeed, the $360 had gone from her account—but of course she was not holding the cash. She phoned the Commonwealth Bank about the matter and the bank told her that she had to register a dispute to say that the money was missing. Cheryl also called the Rock Building Society, who informed her that they had to wait for the Commonwealth Bank to call them once the dispute was registered.

This went on and on; we are talking about a chain of events which started on 18 February. Cheryl called the ATM disputes hotline five times during work hours and was getting no answers at all. She was repeatedly given different answers from the Commonwealth Bank on the time frame in which she should expect to receive her money—one week, two weeks, four weeks, six weeks. Finally, the ATM manager at the Rock Building Society did receive word from the Commonwealth Bank and released the $360 to Cheryl. This happened only a matter of days ago.

The money was then transferred to the company that runs the ATM, which is Cashcard. We have two banks and a middle organisation in this story. The money sat in Cashcard’s hands for one week before further calls to the Commonwealth Bank led to Cheryl receiving the money yesterday. Cheryl feels that it is very unfair that this procedure took so long. I am sure all of us listening to this story here today are scratching our heads and wondering, in this day and age, when we have split-second electronic transfers and information technology at our fingertips, how this could take so long.

I am told by ASIC that, in fact, there is a review going on at the moment into the Electronic Funds Transfer Code of Conduct, which all banks and financial institutions are supposed to abide by. That code of conduct has time limits for banks to observe in addressing these problems. They have 21 days in which to complete an investigation or advise of the need for more time to complete an investigation. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, an investigation is supposed to be complete within 45 days of receipt of the complaint. These periods of time are clearly too lengthy. This is a problem that ASIC recognises. There is a review into the EFT Code of Conduct, which I imagine all members of this House would support. I will certainly be writing a submission to that review telling them about what Cheryl suffered and asking them to review those time periods as a matter of urgency. (Time expired)