Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to say thanks to the many Australians who have fought hard to save the banks in their country towns. I should recognise your efforts as well, Mr Acting Deputy President Sterle. A few years ago, Senator Rennick—and I think he might have spoken about this earlier—pushed for a Senate inquiry into regional bank closures. We on the Rural and Regional Affairs and References Committee, along with many everyday Australians, got involved and fought hard to keep banks in our country towns.

Our first act as a committee was to write to all the banks and ask them not to close branches during our inquiry, and three of the four major banks agreed with us and did that. As a consequence, 12 bank branches that were slated for closure were not closed at that time. It was one of the more fruitful Senate committee experiences I've been involved in. It was conducted in a tripartisan way and we delivered real results for people on the ground. I want to thank everybody who got involved. I remember our first hearing down in Sale, in Victoria—organised with just weeks notice. The town hall was packed to the rafters, and that public reaction clearly helped force the hands of the banks to do something here and to stop the ripping out of financial services from our country towns.

I do welcome yesterday's announcement that banks will now extend that moratorium until mid-2027. That's fantastic. All banks have now signed up to provide their banking services through Australia Post branches. That's great, but more needs to be done, too. Our committee did also recommend that a small levy be introduced on our major banks so that we could fund the expansion of new services and we don't just get declining services; we get growth in financial services in the bush. I hope the government can take that recommendation up as well.