Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The announcement made by People First Bank to close their branch at Oakey was a real kick in the guts for the local community. This is a great regional town. It's got meatworks, huge feedlots, an army base, the New Acland coalmine and famous transport companies—they're based all around it—but no bank. This is a huge hit. The ability of people in those regional communities to access their cash and to access banking services has been taken away from a thriving community.

Dave Cooper and the Oakey Chamber of Commerce brought the community together to discuss this issue when it was raised. Whilst there was a lot of anger in the room, there was also a desire for the community to work together to try and find a solution. I want to thank Dave for his leadership on that. Over the next couple of weeks and months, I, the community and the chamber of commerce will be reaching out to everybody we can in Oakey, trying to get a feel for what they need for their future banking requirements—what they want and what they're willing to contribute in terms of helping out. We want to work together with the committee to try and find a solution. We've already had some great conversations with the Customer Owned Banking Association and with Darling Downs Bank—two of the major banks. They've reached out and said they want to look at options they can provide that will help. I've had a positive start in these conversations, but this is something that we're going to have to work together on to try and find a way to keep banking in Oakey. If we can't keep it in a place like Oakey, there is no town in Australia that is safe from this.

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