In the ultimate dodgy trick, the final report in to the Taskforce into Regional Banking was snuck out at 4.52pm on Friday evening by the Albanese Government despite the report being a Coalition document overseen by two shadow ministers (Michael Sukkar and Perin Davey) whose current portfolios have nothing to do with treasury, finance, business or regional Australia.
As predicted by The Regional when this taskforce was set up, the final report contains nothing that will save a single bank, with the executive summary’s admission that it received more than 400 submissions “on ways of maintaining and improving banking services” illustrating that the entire exercise was, as the Financial Sector Union described it in 2021, just a “cruel stunt”.
https://www.theregional.com.au/post/regional-banking-taskforce-s-botch-job-is-no-laughing-matter
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN4244
Regional Australia is down to just 1011 major banks – a figure the taskforce was in possession of, or close to it, but chose not to reveal in preference to a much broader and rosier number provided by APRA, possibly due to an undeclared conflict of interest by Senator Davey.
A new inquiry would hopefully give regional Australians a fair go at saving their last banks and even, hopefully, getting some new ones.
The petition – EN4244 – closes on Wednesday night (October 6, 12.59am) (Sydney).
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