Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I went away for the two-week break hoping, like a lot of Australians, that we might actually have some reform on the table during this next couple of parliamentary weeks. The Banking Laws Amendment (Unclaimed Money) Bill 2015 is disappointing on a number of levels—and I will get to the detail around why the Greens are likely to oppose this bill.

A week ago, the Treasurer, Mr Joe Hockey, walked away from what would have been a significant but passable reform through this Senate: a bank deposit levy. A bank deposit levy was originally proposed by Labor and the Greens four years ago, following a comprehensive piece by the Reserve Bank of Australia and an international study looking at the requirement to have funds put aside for contingencies should we see a situation like we saw with the global financial crisis, when our government had to step in and guarantee both wholesale and retail deposits so that we did not have the contagion and the mass panic that we saw in other markets around the world. A bank deposit levy that made a lot of sense was broadly supported, including by some very positive statements by the Treasurer himself, and it would have had the support of the Greens. I cannot speak for Labor—who knows what Labor does on the economy from day to day—but it would have had the support of the Greens.