Banking royal commission: former farmers left destitute say nothing has changed

Dimity and Michael Hirst were left destitute when ANZ Bank sold their five farms in Tasmania.

Dimity Hirst with her daughters Bethany and Ruby, who had their five farms in Tasmania sold by the ANZ Bank at below valuation in 2012. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Dimity and Michael Hirst were left destitute when ANZ Bank sold their five farms in Tasmania at below valuation in 2012. It took until yesterday, after seven years of mental and financial anguish, for a small glimmer of hope to emerge in the couple’s lives.

“This will perk a lot of people up,” Mr Hirst told The Australian after the release of the royal commission’s final report.

“There are still men who can’t get out of bed because of what these guys (the banks) did to them, and there are broken families all over the country. This gives us all some hope.”

Mr Hirst made a memorable appearance at the royal commission in June last year.

As a tearful Dimity looked on from the public gallery, he recounted how ANZ had promised him in 2011 that nothing would change after its takeover of rural finance group Landmark.

Bank executives even urged the Hirsts to borrow more money and expand their farm business, but within a fortnight, ANZ cut its valuation by 40 per cent and froze the couple’s accounts after the collapse of Tasmanian forestry company Gunns, to which the Hirsts had leased much of their land.

ANZ later admitted its conduct in relation to the Hirsts fell below community standards and expectations. It said it should have told the family it disapproved of their investment model, and it should never have obtained fresh valu­ations of the properties without providing them to the family.

Although the bank apologised, Ms Hirst said nothing had changed at ANZ. “I don’t believe it has, because it’s a cultural thing,” she said late last year. Nor has the bank been in touch since her husband gave evidence.

“It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest,” Ms Hirst said. “Not a word.”

In his report, commissioner Ken Hayne recommended that default interest be waived on rural loans in areas affected by drought.

He also recommended farms be valued by someone other than the bank, and that a national farm debt mediation scheme be established to enable farmers with distressed loans to work out a repayment scheme with specialist financial advisers.

Mr Hirst, who aspires to return to farming, said yesterday Mr Hayne had done a great job. “I am really happy that small people like us have been heard, and they have actually taken it seriously,” he said. “I just hope some of those financial executives go to jail. It’s very important that they follow through.”