Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If you cast your eye over the daily program today or, in fact, any day this week, you will not find the bold agenda of a freshly elected government. In fact, all you will find is a menu of political parlour games. You wouldn't know, for example, that today is the 170th day since the government received the report of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. It was not a pretty read. There was, for example, $100 million in unlawful deductions by the National Australia Bank from the superannuation accounts of its wealth management arm; the Commonwealth Bank charging fees for financial advice that was never delivered; ANZ having to deliver compensation to over two million customers who had been charged or ripped off in some way by that bank; and the AMP caught charging more than a million dollars to 4,000 dead people—4,000 dead people! This is the tip of the iceberg.

The hearings of the royal commission swept between tragedy and farce, but the real farce is the fact that this government has not introduced one bill into this parliament to implement the recommendations of this commission. (Time expired)