Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a servant to the many amazing people who make up our one Queensland community, I note that if an everyday Australian steals a few thousand dollars they go to jail, yet if a banker steals $4.7 billion they do not go to jail. As at 31 December 2022, six of Australia's largest banking and financial services institutions have paid or offered a total of $4.7 billion in compensation to customers who suffered loss or detriment because of fees for no service or non-compliant advice. 'Banks gone bad', greedily charging fees for no service and providing financial advice that failed to meet the standards for financial advice, ripped $4.7 billion off everyday Australians. And they got away with it. Let me name and shame them: National Australia Bank, AMP, ANZ, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank and Macquarie Bank. Australia has a Banking Executive Accountability Regime, B-E-A-R, that's supposed to hold bank executives to account. Clearly, BEAR does not work, because no executive has been fined, let alone jailed, for this corporate fraud.

Is corporate fraud now okay with Labor, with the Liberal-Nationals and with the teals? Apparently. Now Stephen Jones, the minister representing the banks, is planning to introduce legislation to take the penalties out of the BEAR scheme to expedite the banks ripping off more Australians in the future. One Nation has a simple message for banking executives: don't even think about it! Unless we keep and use penalty based regulation, nothing will stop these banks doing the same again. Free market competition, though, will bring the banks to heel. A proper Australia Post bank will provide genuine competition for our banking cartel, using ethical, community based banking at thousands of new bank branches. It's been proven with the original Commonwealth Bank a hundred years ago. One Nation has a long history of standing up for everyday Australians. Clearly, the Labor Party does not.