Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Cormann) to a question without notice asked by Senator Whish-Wilson today relating to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

When previous Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, spoke to the National Press Club only a few weeks ago it was noted that a number—in fact, the majority—of the questions that were asked of her were around executive pay in the banking sector. It's really interesting that, at this time when we're having a national debate about inequality, it's certainly been a key topic in recent weeks and no doubt will form the basis of the Labor Party's policies and strategic thrust going into the next federal election. While we're having this national debate on inequality, where's the debate on income inequality? Where's the debate on the massive bonuses and executive salaries that we're seeing in industries like the banking sector? Now, I noted today that this has been back on the agenda in recent days, following the revelation, as quoted in the media, of allegations against Commonwealth Bank in relation to the AUSTRAC filing in the Federal Court against Commonwealth Bank directly in relation to a number of breaches around the use of automatic teller machines and money laundering.

It's actually worth reading the notice of filing. It's not very long—it's only six pages long—and it's actually quite stark and quite illuminating when you read the details of the filing. It outlines a number of money-laundering syndicates. The key point is the alleged harm that the Australian regulator, the government agency, has outlined because of Commonwealth Bank's breaches:

As a result of the failure to file TTRs and SMRs on time or at all, in accordance with the Act, AUSTRAC and other law enforcement and designated agencies have been deprived of information which the Act is intended to provide. Non-reporting and late reporting both delays and hinders law enforcement efforts. Delays in this case have resulted in lost intelligence and evidence (including CCTV footage), further money laundering and lost proceeds of crime.

And this is the most important line:

The effect of CommBank's conduct in this matter has exposed the Australian community to serious and ongoing financial crime.

It might be a coincidence that this was filed and hit the media only a few days before CommBank announced their annual results. The situation this week resulted in an immediate public outcry, not just from the Greens but from a number of CommBank's investors, that the board of CommBank and the chair of CommBank have to take immediate action. We've seen calls for bonuses to be waived, salaries to be cut and executives to be dismissed. It didn't take very long for the board of CommBank to respond yesterday. They cut short-term cash bonuses to their CEO and directors and cut directors' fees. That still leaves us in the situation where the CEO, the head of CommBank, based on last year's package—when you look at long-term bonus incentives and salary—is still paid over $10 million.

While we're having a discussion about a plebiscite, wouldn't it be fascinating if we actually asked the Australian people what they think and what community expectations are around the salaries of these executives in our banking sector. It's not just our banking sector. There are CEOs across a number of industries who are paid extraordinary amounts of money—in some cases, over $30 million a year. It's not just the private sector; it's also in the Public Service, government organisations and government owned business enterprises, GBEs. Some of the salaries are huge multiples of average weekly earnings or average wages in businesses. If we want to have a serious debate on inequality in Australia or anywhere around the world, we need to debate income inequality. We have stagnate wage growth and we know we have inequality in the housing market in this country, but we need to look at income inequality, we need to have a public debate about how much our CEOs are paid and we need to have it here, in parliament.

Question agreed to.