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

This will be the last contribution from me. My colleagues and I want to move on to the next pieces of legislation. I can't let Senator O'Neill's brief contribution go unanswered. Senator O'Neill said that Labor believes the best way to tackle culture in the banks is through a banking royal commission. While I agree that it's certainly an important part of this debate, may I remind Senator O'Neill—through you, Chair—that, when I raised a motion in this place over three years ago, to have a banking royal commission for exactly this reason, Labor didn't just oppose it; Senator Dastyari made a public statement that it was a 'Greens' stunt'. I remember seeing some people on social media saying, 'If it's a Greens' stunt, Sam, it's a good one. Support it.' Anyway, we don't need a history lesson. But Labor did fall behind our push for a royal commission and, I will say, Senator Williams's and other people's push for a royal commission. I think it's ironic that I'm being told this is a stunt today when it is exactly what I was told when I was pushing for a royal commission into the banks to try to help fix the cultural problems that we have in our financial services sector.

I accept that this is going to be revolutionary and radical to some, but it's not going to go away. Other countries are looking at this. This debate about excessive executive remuneration in financial services is happening right around the world. Nothing else is working. You can't leave this to shareholders. If we want to look at the larger debate of inequality in this country then we actually have to look at not only how we raise minimum wages, which we desperately need to do in this country, but also how we cap ridiculous maximum wages at the top end of the spectrum. We need to do both if we're going to fix inequality and close the gap.