Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

That is not what the Prime Minister actually said last week. The Prime Minister said that the report of the Senate economics committee inquiry into the performance of ASIC was a very comprehensive report—indeed, it was over 550 pages—and it made 61 recommendations. The Prime Minister said, as I did, that the government would carefully consider the report and all of the recommendations and provide a full and considered response in due course. We also said that, in relation to the recommendations related to ASIC, there is a financial systems inquiry underway which is assessing the regulatory arrangements in our financial system and also reviewing the role and the performance of ASIC moving forward.

In relation to recommendation 7, which effectively recommended a royal commission into the Commonwealth Bank, the government have said that we are unconvinced that yet another inquiry is the best way to help victims. We are focused on what course of action is most likely to achieve an efficient and effective resolution of any legitimate, outstanding, unresolved issues of aggrieved Commonwealth Bank customers. In our judgement, the open advice review program—which was announced last week by Mr Narev, the CEO of the Commonwealth Bank—offers that opportunity if it is properly implemented in an appropriately independent fashion. However, we do reserve our final judgement. We are monitoring the way the program is implemented and, once the rollout is underway and once we have finalised our consideration of the relevant Senate economics committee inquiry, we will provide a full response to all of the recommendations, including the one that Senator Whish-Wilson refers to. But we remain unconvinced that yet another inquiry is the best way to help victims in the circumstances.