Did Hayne’s shock treatment swing the pendulum too far?
The Hayne royal commission shocked corporate Australia into cultural change, and brought big shifts to banking and wealth. But five years on, questions about unintended consequences remain.
Like most veterans of the banking royal commission, I find it doesn’t take much to bring back the memories of the long hours spent inside the inquiry’s public home: courtroom 4A, in Melbourne’s Commonwealth Law Courts building.
The wood panelling. The long hours. The nerves of the witnesses. The way senior counsel assisting, Rowena Orr and Michael Hodge, politely skewered some of Australia’s senior financial services leaders, and became household names in the process. The uncomfortable chairs. The uncomfortable gaze of Commissioner Kenneth Hayne, who has a Mona Lisa-like ability to scowl at everyone at the same time – witnesses, lawyers, hangers-on and media.
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James Thomson is senior Chanticleer columnist based in Melbourne. He was the Companies editor and editor of BRW Magazine. Connect with James on Twitter. Email James at j.thomson@afr.com
