John Forrest (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, we all have them now. And 40 per cent is owned by Elders themselves. There was a very bad example of absolute brutality and bullying of a constituent of mine, whose name I will protect—I do not want them exposed. I have to say that this bank has a mortgage collection officer whose name is Malcolm Sparrow, who is the worst piece of work I have ever struck. I have had 17 years of association with this dilemma and he is the worst person I have ever struck. I will never forgive him for what he has done to my constituents. I drove 15 hours out of my way to meet up with him and the CEO of Rural Bank. I drove all the way to Murray Bridge and spent the whole day there to plead with them that there was a better way to resolve the difficulty—for them to get their money but leave my constituent with some capacity to retain a small amount of equity he had in the property. But, no, this bank knew better. It ignored my advice. I express my absolute disappointment in the CEO, a man by the name of Paul Hutchinson, who was impotent in bringing Malcolm Sparrow under control.

What this bank did was use a shelf company that my constituent had there for future use. It was a proprietary limited company and was not even trading, and yet they used that to get around the normal processes they have at their disposal through the court, and they appointed a liquidator. That property, a magnificent farming operation with a good crop on it last year and some rain, ended up being sold for half its commercial value, which leaves my constituent and his parents in a desperate situation and me with the problem of trying to get them some Centrelink support. I am not having that anymore. I am naming and shaming the Rural Bank of Australia.

I know they are busy. They have been extremely busy in the member for Barker’s electorate on the South Australian border outside my electorate, and I am advised that there are five cases where Malcolm Sparrow is using his wheelbarrow bully tactics in the member for Farrer’s electorate. I warn him: if you try those tactics again in my constituency, I will tell the people of Australia that this is the worst bank of all to deal with. In all the time I have been in this place I have never used the power that the founding fathers gave us to use privilege, but Malcolm Sparrow is a piece of work. He is a man with no conscience. He is a man who has a vengeful attitude to the resolution of difficulties. My advice to Paul Hutchinson is to have him dismissed—to retire the man before he does any more emotional harm to my constituents or anybody else’s.

The other banks are on my provisional list and, if we can get through the current difficulties and they recognise their need to treat my constituents with dignity and behave honourably, I will put them back on the good guy list. But in the meantime it is provisional and I say all you lenders out there: if you treat my constituents badly, you may as well treat me badly. There is one thing that makes me angry—I think I am the most generous spirited of people; I hope I can get some agreement on that—and that is to see bullying, with big corporations crushing the little people under their ruthless heels. I have had enough of it.

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