Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Consumer Data Right) Bill of 2022—and, yes, I did say that right. This bill has been around for quite some time. In fact, it's been before the Senate without debate for over a year.

The Albanese Labor government has, sadly, failed to listen to the concerns of consumer groups to include greater safeguards to protect consumer privacy and to prevent scams and financial abuse in the Consumer Data Right framework. They've, sadly, also failed to listen adequately to the concerns of smaller banks and mutuals, who would be disproportionately impacted by obligations under the Consumer Data Right framework. So, instead of actually addressing and fixing those problems, the bill has been left to languish for a year. You ask yourself why? Unfortunately, the conclusion that I draw is that it is because the government have bowed to pressure from their political donors—the big banks and the insurance industry. They oppose this important reform for consumers. Choosing to support massive corporations like the big banks over the interests of everyday Australians is a tragic pattern that we have now seen and continue to see from this Labor government.

And I reflect on earlier in this government's term when the Assistant Treasurer reneged on his support for a Greens amendment that would have imposed million-dollar fines for dodgy bankers. It was the right thing for him to originally commit to that, but then he reneged on it, and do you know why? Because executives of the big banks complained to Jim Chalmers. They rang up and said, 'Oh, no, please don't hold us accountable for integrity breaches.' And the government said: 'You want us to jump? How high? No problems, mate.' The big bank CEOs can just call the Labor government and get whatever they want.

Yesterday people might have seen Commonwealth Bank, or CommBank, as it's rebranded itself, posted a $9.79 billion profit. That's almost $10 billion in pure profit made by Commonwealth Bank. That is earned off the pain of mortgage holders and renters and struggling families who can't afford the basics to survive. It should be criminal how much money the big four banks have made off the housing crisis. Right now, on average, $400 of every monthly mortgage payment that people pay is going straight to the profit of the big banks; that is $400 a month from every single mortgage payment is going straight to the profit of the big banks. People are forgoing things like fresh fruit and vegetables just so they can make their mortgage repayments. Meanwhile, the big banks are posting collectively profits of $30 billion in a year. It's absolutely obscene. Labor and the Liberals are happy to let the banks rip off Australians, because they take millions in political donations from them.

This is exactly why the Greens have long campaigned for political donations to be reformed, for them to be banned from the big banks, coal and gas companies, weapons manufacturers, the alcohol and gambling lobby and property developers. Big corporations should not be able to buy policy outcomes from anybody forming government. That is why we're seeking to clean up the political donations system. It is an obscene and broken system that we live under. Corporations should not be able to make billions in profit when 3.7 million households don't know where their next meal is coming from. That shouldn't be a controversial statement; it should simply be the bare minimum of a functional society. I might add that the wealth of the richest 200 people in Australia is now equivalent to 25 per cent of national GDP. No-one should be able to hoard a quarter of the country's wealth when 761,000 kids live in poverty. It is utterly wrong.

People need to know that it doesn't have to be that way. We can change this. But the divide between the billionaires and ordinary people will only get bigger if the Labor Party and the Liberal Party continue to put their corporate mates first. We say tax the big corporates and make them pay their fair share, but, once again, the Labor government have chosen to back in the big banks ahead of everyday Australians and leave their own bill that would help consumers and support better competition languishing for over a year in the Senate. So I'm glad that the bill is on today, and we will be supporting it because it creates a framework for consumers to access a range of outcomes, including to switch more easily between utility, insurance, telco and banking providers. That's a small step, but it's an important one to make it easier for Australians to try to shop around and get a better deal for things like essential services and to improve competition.

We urge the Labor government to prioritise fixing the issues in the consumer data rights framework with particular regard to consumer safety and security and to ensure small banks and mutuals are not unduly impacted. But, fundamentally, when you've got a system of one of the banks posting a $10 billion profit and all of them collectively posting a $30 billion profit with 761,000 children living in poverty and with people genuinely struggling to pay their mortgage or their rent and cutting down on food for themselves and their families to try to make those mortgage payments, it is utterly obscene that the big banks are laughing all the way to the door with $30 billion of collective profits.

There is a widening gap between the obscenely wealthy and the rest of Australians. It is not good for economic outcomes. It is not good for social cohesion. It is not good for the interests of everyday families that the government is meant to be standing up for. That's meant to be all of our collective jobs—to make sure that people have what they need to live a decent and meaningful life. Instead, we have almost $10 billion in profits from just one of the big corporations that actually run this place. We have our democracy held hostage by big corporates, because they make political donations and then they get the policies that boost their profits. What a nice cosy little relationship between the majority of this parliament and the big corporates! What about ordinary Australians? Why aren't their interests being prioritised ahead of the interests of the big banks and the big corporates? It is obscene. People are fed up with it, and people know that if you want change you've got to vote for it.