Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Just in support of this motion and in response to Senator Williams, I say that we are joined today in this place by a number of victims of bank scandals—victims of the financial services industry. I have just spent an hour with these people—they join us here in this chamber—listening to how their lives have been affected and to how they seek the response that only a royal commission can give.

Senator Williams interjecting—

And only a royal commission that you, Senator Williams, have been arguing for, for some time. The response from the government has been completely inadequate. Listen to the stories of those people whose lives have been affected, whose houses have been lost, whose retirement savings have vanished, whose businesses have folded and who have been arguing for years—eight to 10 years, for some people—for some sense of justice. This is what this motion seeks and that is what a royal commission will find.