Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I would like to make a short statement. This is a government frozen into inaction by its reverence for the four big banks. The Prime Minister, despite all his posturing about take-home pay through the global recession of the big financiers, has done nothing. Banks made huge profits throughout the recession, while Australians were suffering and many lost their jobs. At one end of the scale, we have bank CEOs taking home $5 million or $10 million and, at the other end, we have pensioners fronting up to ATMs to withdraw $20 and the banks charging them a $2 private tax—that is, 10 per cent. It is wrong. You do not get that in Britain, but you get it in Australia. The reason you do not get it in Britain is that there they keep a much closer watch, and take action, on the banks’ activities, particularly rip-offs like this one. The Reserve Bank has found it costs 50c to handle such a transaction, and the banks are charging $2. It is totally wrong for low-income earners.

The government should stop that sort of disgraceful action, which is a regressive private tax. Let them charge what it costs, at the most. But the government says: ‘Put it off. We won’t take action. We’re not going to defend our Labor patch, which is looking after people who are struggling and making sure they get a fair go from the banks.’ The government should be supporting this motion. The Greens will continue to take action to get a fair go from banks for consumers at the lower end. We have supported government action to help the big end of town through the recession; it is about time some of the poorer people got a go as well.

Question put:

That the motion (Senator Bob Brown’s) be agreed to.