Labor leader Bill Shorten calls for inquiry into ‘scandalous’ CBA

LABOR has called for a fresh inquiry into “scandalous” actions at the Commonwealth Bank, saying it’s not convinced Aussies are protected.

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - JULY 06: Australian Labor leader Bill Shorten delivers a speech during New Zealand Labour Party Congress 2014 at Michael Fowler Centre on July 6, 2014 in Wellington, New Zealand. Labour's election year Congress runs from July 4 to 6 and focuses on preparing and planning the party's nationwide election campaign. New Zealand's general election will be held on 20 September. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

COMMONWEALTH Bank executives might have to face a second Senate inquiry into a scandal that resulted in thousands of its clients losing millions of dollars.

Labor is pushing for a fresh inquiry that would also link government changes to financial advice laws.

An earlier inquiry recommended the government look at initiating a royal commission.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten believes not everything is known about the scandalous behaviour at the CBA that involved forgery and concealment from clients of material facts.

“I’m not convinced the government is doing anything to prevent this happening again to thousands of other Australians,” he told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.

It was “unbelievable” that at the same time the government was watering down protections for consumers.

The government bypassed parliament last week to shelve Labor’s Future of Financial Advice laws that were legislated to operate from July 1.

So far, it hasn’t tabled the regulations that allowed it to take that action.

Doing so would almost certainly prompt a disallowance motion by the Senate.