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

I placed the facts of this matter on the record in this chamber last week and I don't intend to labour them. But, without any shadow of a doubt, the Assistant Treasurer and I did have an agreement to include in the financial accountability regime civil penalties for people who breach their accountability obligations.

But what we saw last week was not just Labor refusing to honour an agreement, it was one of those moments when Australians got a bit of a peek through the curtains at who actually runs this place. Last week was as transparent an exercise of power by the big business community in this country as you would ever want to see. Within 24 hours of the agreement going public to put million-dollar fines on dodgy bankers who ripped off their customers, the Labor Party folded in a screaming heap under the weight of lobbying by the big banks. I remind people that these are the very banks who donated well north of $400,000 in the last 12 months that we have donations data for in this country. Money talks, and it talks very loudly indeed in this place.

The other thing was the way the banks steamrolled the Labor Party. They weren't even slightly shy or ashamed about it. They were naked in their exercise of power; in fact, they wanted everyone in this place to see that they made the government renege on the agreement. The banks wanted everyone in the duopoly here, Labor and the LNP, who might be thinking about pushing for something that curbs bankers' power or who might be wanting to tilt the scales in favour of the customers and against the big bankers, to know that in fact it is the big bankers who are in charge of this place. And, my word, they've got the Labor Party on a short leash. We saw that last week.

They don't really need the Liberal Party on a leash because they have been bred to be loyal to the big banks, which is why Senator Bragg's motion is, quite frankly, a little bit of rubbish. The inclusion of civil penalties for individuals who breach their accountability obligations was consulted on by the former government and was the subject of consideration by the Senate Economics Committee into both the previous government's and this government's bill, so the idea that it's come out of nowhere is absolute tosh. The policy is straightforward, the public benefit is abundantly clear to the public, and we now know the only people who don't want million dollar fines are the dodgy bankers who rip off their customers—the dodgy bankers that have both the major parties in this place right where they want them.