It's time to move from bank-bashing rhetoric to bank-changing policies

Greens Treasury spokesperson, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, provides the following comments alongside the release of the Greens submission in response to the Hayne Royal Commission Interim Report. 

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “It’s time to move on from bank-bashing rhetoric to bank-changing policies. If we all agree the system is broken then it’s incumbent on us all to put forward policies to fix the system. We can’t just rely upon political jawboning the banks to make them act properly, it’s going to take serious legislative reform.

“And if we agree the system is broken, then we can’t wait any longer to start the reform process. To delay starting the necessary reforms is to accept the continuation of a system where we know consumers remain at risk.

“The Greens have engaged with the substantive problems exposed in the Hayne interim report and have put forward the sorts of solutions we believe will reduce the systemic and consumer risks that exist in Australia’s financial system.

“We have had a track record of driving reform in this sector whether it’s been through our push since 2014 for a Royal Commission, our calls for a bank levy or our proposed reforms to penalties for white-collar crime. Now it is time to move onto more structural issues like the separation of banking from financial advice and superannuation, changes to executive remuneration and making the ACCC the conduct regulator for consumer issues (rather than ASIC)," he concluded.