Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Whish-Wilson, I've got to say that is a very good question, and I think that that is a question that all of us are entitled to ask. I made that observation on Radio National on Monday morning myself.

Given the events at the Commonwealth Bank a few years ago, surely every bank, every board and every managing director or CEO—the leadership of every bank—would have looked very carefully at the operations under their bonnets to make absolutely certain that they weren't equally exposed. The fact that they didn't is an absolute disgrace. Of course, that is why AUSTRAC will now be pursuing Westpac as is appropriate—through the courts in the appropriate way.

Westpac will end up paying a very, very significant fine for their failure to act. And I guess this is now also a warning to all the other banks. We expect that no other bank is going to be as negligent as the Westpac bank has clearly been, in the wake of this latest round of revelations.