John Forrest (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise again to express my concerns about the debt recovery practices of banks across Australia, and not just in my constituency, where there is a debt tsunami sweeping across the electorate as a result of 10 years of drought and lack of water for irrigators. I do not retract from the strength of the statements I have made. It appals me that I have to come to this chamber and use the powers at my disposal to expose thuggery and brutal activity by lenders as they brutalise people in the collection of borrowings that they are owed.

The other thing that disturbs me greatly is that the Australian Bankers Association has 24 members and, of those 24 members, there are only two that I can in all conscience recommend to my constituents if they want to consider borrowing money for a risky enterprise. There are only two that I can in all conscience publicly commend: ANZ and Westpac. That leaves 22 others about which I am not confident that, if a borrower got into strife because of circumstances beyond their control—be it drought, be it being badly treated by the government with late payments, as the previous speaker for the opposition raised, or whatever the circumstances—they would be treated decently.

I come to this place with a code of conduct that is driven by my faith position, modelled on the behaviour of He who is the centre of the Christian faith. I do not always meet that standard. It is a pretty high bar. I do not even expect lenders to reach that bar, but I do expect them to behave honourably like proper Australian corporations should and not use their thuggery and their immense power to crush people and, after they have done that, leave the local member with the job of offering moral support and trying to get welfare and counselling for people who have been crushed by the abusive behaviour that they have endured.

Banks are entitled to get their money, yes, and I will do what I can do to assist them in that, but they are not entitled to gouge excessive fees and penalty interest rates, which in one case I am currently dealing with are as high as 22 per cent. That is an indictment of that particular bank. To the bank that I have named: all I am asking you to do is to sign up to the Australian Bankers Association’s code of conduct. If that bank that I have named does not do that, I ask that other members of the Australian Bankers Association do what they can to have them expelled from the Bankers Association because their bad behaviour is reflecting on everyone. (Time expired)