Tracey Roberts (Pearce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I recently spoke in this place about the closures of bank branches and ATMs predominantly by the big four banks in my Pearce electorate. I also raised the consequences of living in a cashless society and ignoring our most vulnerable citizens. Some acknowledgment was given at the time to Bankwest for having more branches accessible to residents of Pearce whilst other banks only had one remaining branch each to service the whole of the Pearce electorate. Imagine the dismay of my constituents in finding out Bankwest have announced they are closing all their branches and ATMs, and will only serve customers online in the future. Residents have told me they're prepared to protest, hold demonstrations and boycott the Commonwealth Bank, such is their anger. This is of great concern, as many of my constituents tell me they do not have either online access or the confidence to use online banking, which they do not trust as they're afraid of being scammed. I cannot say I blame them, as almost daily we are bombarded with news of yet another scam to try and get money from the unwary. We all saw what happened recently when a telco system went down. What did everybody rush to do? Use cash, of course. The same thing happened recently in Perth when the Commonwealth Bank's system went down for several hours.

Bankwest was established in 1895, as the Agricultural Bank of Western Australia, by the WA government of the time to service farmers. The bank has a proud history which tells stories of staff sleeping under the stars as they traversed large distances between properties across the state. In 1945 the bank became the Rural and Industries Bank of Western Australia, to better reflect the customers they supported. In 1956 the bank transitioned to support a broader group of customers and became a savings bank. And in 1994, when it became clear their customer base was no longer limited to those in the WA regions and industries, they became the Bank of Western Australia, trading under the name Bankwest.

Bankwest is a commercial business owned by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, a bank that has already closed its doors on all but one branch in the whole of the Pearce electorate. The Commonwealth Bank has stated that no regional town will lose its last bank branch, and that in regional towns where there is a Bankwest branch but no Commonwealth Bank branch the Bankwest branch will convert to a Commonwealth Bank branch. Bankwest has also stated that customers who currently only use branch services, particularly the elderly and vulnerable customers, will be assisted to move accounts to the Commonwealth Bank and to continue to utilise branch services. Let us hope they can deliver on this commitment, given they have already closed branches of their own. Otherwise, it appears they'll just fob off customers to Australia Post, which, as we know, can only provide a limited service. We need to produce a viable alternative, as I believe we will always have people in our community who, for various reasons, find themselves on the margins, unable to afford the technology or fearful of using it, and who require access to cash.

We also need to consider that going cashless is not as straightforward as we think. Experiences in Sweden have highlighted the pitfalls of such thinking, with Sweden showing the need to safeguard access to cash—especially when there has been increasing concern for the elderly, those living in rural areas and people from migrant backgrounds who have been left behind by businesses no longer accepting cash. Britain's government has promised to guarantee access to cash, with the UK Treasury drafting legislation based on the Swedish laws.

In Australia, research by the Reserve Bank of Australia from 2019 suggests about a quarter of the population remain high cash users, for whom no longer being able to use cash will be 'a major inconvenience or genuine hardship':

These high cash users are more likely to be older, have lower household income, live in regional areas, and/or have limited internet access.

A fully cashless society is often envisaged as inevitable. However, we have a responsibility to learn from the lessons of others and not rush down this path. I urge the banks and businesses across Australia and in my electorate of Pearce to think carefully about the people they serve. I know of many local businesspeople who are now having to travel long distances to access a bank branch, and this is impacting on their businesses' bottom line. I'm also aware that the new announcements about closures have made many in my electorate uncertain about their banking future, and I urge everyone to seek advice so they can make an informed decision about their future banking needs.