Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens welcome this bill, which will implement four recommendations of the banking royal commission—specifically, recommendations dealing with the ongoing disclosure of, and consent to, fees by customers and the disclosure of any lack of independence on the part of a financial adviser.

This bill, the Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response No. 2) Bill 2020, is one part of the end result of the royal commission into banks that the Greens fought for so hard for so many years. This is the royal commission that the government had to be dragged kicking and screaming to conduct, despite the fact that tens of thousands of Australians have had their businesses and their lives destroyed by the rapacious and profit-hungry conduct of the big corporate banking sector in this country.

As Senator McAllister said, the government voted against a banking royal commission 26 times. It's probably worth pointing out here that Labor voted against it on multiple occasions as well. In fact, it was only the prospect of an insurrection amongst government backbench senators that forced the government's hand. They've shown just how much their heart isn't in it by using the cover of COVID to introduce legislation that would abolish responsible lending laws, in direct contradiction to the very first recommendation of the royal commission, recommendation 1.1.

As I said, it also took the Labor Party a while to see the light, no doubt slowed up by the fact that one of their number, Ms Anna Bligh, heads up no less than the Australian Banking Association. In fact, in voting against a motion from Senator Whish-Wilson, former Senator Dastyari described Senator Whish-Wilson's motion as 'a stunt'. Well, it wasn't a stunt; it was a concerted campaign to shine a light on the misdeeds of those given the privilege of managing other people's money. If there's anyone who should be thanked for the banking royal commission, it is Senator Whish-Wilson, and he should be thanked not only for the royal commission but for this bill and other bills which implement the recommendations of that royal commission. It was Senator Whish-Wilson who in the Senate, in committees and in estimates consistently pursued the banks for their misconduct and the regulators for their complicity.

But, as welcome as the royal commission was and as welcome as the changes included in this bill are, they only scratch the surface of a fundamentally broken system. After decades of privatisation and deregulation giving everyone the freedom to be actors in markets to improve their lives, inequality has grown, employment is less secure, the provision of essential services has been eroded and the planet is cooking, and we are in the sixth mass extinction event in the geological history of the earth. Neoliberalism and trickle-down economics are both massive cons, and they have broken the Australian economy and destroyed the Australian dream of owning one's own home.

Homeownership rates today have fallen back to where they were in the 1950s. I'll say that again, colleagues. Homeownership rates today are back to where they were in the 1950s. Along with a reduction in the provision of public housing, this means more and more people are in private rental, and more and more people are in rental stress. They are paying through the nose for their rents because house prices have been inflated by tax incentives for investors and deregulated bank lending—which, by the way, the government wants to further deregulate by abolishing responsible lending obligations. Since the pandemic, bucketloads of printed money have been funnelled into the financial system by the Reserve Bank of Australia. Perversely, these high rents then prevent renters from being able to save up for their own homes. Colleagues, turning homes into an asset class, which is exactly what neoliberalism has done, has destroyed the lives of countless Australian families and is in the process of pricing most of an entire generation of young people out of the housing market in this country. And around and around it goes. As I said, this hits young people the hardest, and there is also another group of people, which is older people who have been the subject of family breakups, who find themselves stuck in the rental market and in extreme rental stress.

Part of the problem here is that Australia's house prices are among the highest in the world and our level of household debt is among the highest in the world. Conversely, even after the pandemic, Australia's level of government debt is one of the lowest in the developed world, thanks to the success of the deficit hawks in discrediting the value of government spending. As a result, we've underinvested in public infrastructure and public services and we continue to underinvest in public infrastructure and public services.

At the same time that public infrastructure and services are being neglected and people are being left to fend for themselves, workers are getting paid less. Wages growth is flat lining. The share of total national income going to workers has declined over the last two decades, and it hit the lowest rate on record recently during the pandemic. In recent years, wages growth has also been at its lowest rate since World War II, and wages have stopped growing in line with productivity growth. On the other hand, the share of income being directed to company profits is at its highest rate since World War II and was so even before the start of the pandemic. Let's revisit that. Wages growth is at its lowest rate since World War II, and the share of income being directed to company profits is at its highest rate since World War II. So the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Not surprisingly, wealth inequality has gone through the roof, because profits are up, benefiting people who are already wealthy enough to own shares, and because home ownership rates have declined, meaning that inflated land prices are benefiting fewer and fewer people. Wealth inequality has also increased because privatisation has concentrated the ownership of more wealth in the hands of the already wealthy. And what are the wealthy doing with all this wealth? Well, the rate of business investment has been slowing and has actually declined. This is despite record low interest rates even before the pandemic hit. Accordingly, productivity growth is also stagnant. Before the pandemic, even with the cheapest money in history, businesses were investing less and giving less to workers in wages and instead giving more to shareholders, including business executives. It has only got worse since COVID hit. So, no, the wealth is not trickling down. It's not trickling down to wages and it's not trickling down to investment and it is most certainly not trickling down to those who, because of policy choices made by this government, can't find any work or can't find enough work to make ends meet.

We are selling out far too many Australians, and particularly we are selling out far too many young Australians. Those young Australians are not just going to inherit a cooked economy; they're going to inherit a cooked planet. We need to do much, much more. The neoliberal agenda is destroying nature. It is driving species to extinction. It is cooking the planet. It is making the already obscenely wealthy even better off. It is skyrocketing wealth inequality. It is pricing young people out of the housing market. It serves nobody except those who are already wealthy and the big corporations in this country. That's why we need to make sure that the superwealthy and the big corporates pay their fair share of tax, so we can fund the essential services that people want governments to deliver—better hospital systems, better schools, better public transport systems, better support for people living with disabilities. We have the wherewithal to do those things and deliver those public services at a far higher quality than we are now and make them available to far more people than we make them available to now. We can fund it by taxing the superwealthy and the big corporates. Make them pay their fair share of tax. The superwealthy and the big corporates have been making off like bandits, trousering obscene levels of wealth, while far too many people miss out, the planet continues to cook and the war on nature continues, as it has, tragically, for so many decades.

Colleagues, the system is broken. The ecosphere that provides for all life on this planet is groaning under the strain. As a result, our social contract is beginning to fracture. This will lead to more and more people joining the ever-growing movement for real climate action to protect nature, to oppose privatisation and deregulation, to make sure that the big corporates and the superwealthy pay their fair share of tax so we can fund the public services that Australians expect and demand their governments provide. This bill is a step forward, based on the recommendations of the Hayne royal commission into banks. That royal commission exposed criminal behaviour. It exposed a toxic culture, based on greed and obsession with profit. The banks need to be hauled into line, but this government is starting to waiver.

Recommendation 1.1 of the Hayne royal commission, not to change responsible lending laws, has been screwed up and thrown in the bin by this government. While we support this legislation, we want to make sure that people understand this government is starting to go weak at the knees in terms of bringing the big banking corporations to heel. The Greens will fight them every step of the way, if they start to once again roll over and let their big corporate donors and their big corporate masters tickle their collective bellies. We're watching you. We don't trust you and we will hold you to account.