Scott Morrison accuses Bill Shorten of ‘playing politics’ with the banking royal commission

Scott Morrison has accused Bill Shorten of attacking the banking royal commission’s independence in calling for it to be extended.

Labor today announced it will hold talks with victims of banking misconduct after calls to extend the royal commission into financial services were rebuffed. Picture: AAP

Scott Morrison has accused Bill Shorten of attacking the banking royal commission’s independence in calling for it to be extended, despite no such request from Commissioner Kenneth Hayne.

Labor will hold its own meetings around Australia with bank complainants from today, in a bid to put pressure on the government to extend the banking royal commission hearings beyond the February 1 deadline.

Mr Morrison has said that if Commissioner Hayne asks for more time, he will get it, but Labor is calling for it to be extended regardless.

Handing down a damning interim report which contained no recommendations on Friday, Commissioner Hayne indicated he would not be requesting an extension.

“Prolonged injections of doubt and uncertainty can affect performance, therefore I must execute my tasks promptly,” Commissioner Hayne wrote.

So far the commission has received more than 9000 submissions, but only 27 witnesses have appeared in person.

“It seems that the only reason Bill Shorten wanted a royal commission into the banking industry was to play politics with it,” Mr Morrison said.

“He’s basically attacking the independence of the Royal Commissioner.

“I think he is acting very recklessly in calling into question the actions of the Royal Commissioner.

“I mean he’s an independent Royal Commissioner, let him do his job.

“I think it’s quite an insult to all the staff of the royal commission staff who have pored over the 9000 submissions that they have received.

“You can see quite clearly in the interim report that’s been released by Commissioner Hayne that all of these issues that have been raised in the submissions are being taken up in what they’re finding.”

Mr Morrison said that while a number of people had had the opportunity to appear before the inquiry, every submission was being “fully considered” by the commission.

“We have a royal commission into the banking and finance industry. Now what you don’t do is go out there and attack the Royal Commissioner’s independence and start trying to second-guess him and tell him how he should be doing his job,” Mr Morrison said.

“That’s not what I’m doing. I didn’t do it as treasurer. I initiated this royal commission as treasurer and I want to see it do its job free from political interference and free from political grandstanding.

“Bill Shorten needs to respect the royal commission and allow it to do its job.”

Mr Morrison said the government was doing its job in increasing the authority for prudential regulator APRA to ban rogue banking executives from the industry.

“Those laws have already been passed,” Mr Morrison said.

“We’ve increased the powers for ASIC.

“We’ve ensured that we now have a deputy commissioner of ASIC, the corporate watchdog, whose job is to prosecute those who do the wrong thing, and as you saw in the interim report, that was one of the key issues raised by the Royal Commissioner.

“So my message to Bill Shorten is: stop playing politics with a royal commission that’s supposed to be independent, respect the Royal Commissioner and his independence, and respect the hard work of the royal commission staff, who are doing their job.

“To suggest that they have been ignoring the submissions that have been provided to the royal commission I think is offensive, and I think Bill Shorten should apologise to the staff of the royal commission for suggesting they haven’t been doing their job properly. Stop the politics, Bill.”

‘Victims are frustrated’: Shorten

Mr Shorten said he commended the work of the commission.

“They are doing an amazing job. I think everyone, no matter what they thought they might uncover, has been shocked by the systemic and cynical exploitation of people where we’ve seen profits put ahead of people in Australia,” he said.

“But Labor is now saying that we need to extend the length of this royal commission.

“It’s been great. The royal commission’s case studies have been well-targeted and very good at highlighting a range of issues. 27 victims have had the chance to tell their story and that’s been a good thing.

“But there are literally thousands of victims who feel frustrated that they’re not getting their chance to explain what happened to them.

“I understand that explaining how you got ripped off doesn’t put you back in the position that you should have been in before you got ripped off.

“But a crucial part of making sure that never again do we have to seek ethics sacrificed on the altar of profit, we must see this royal commission extended.”

So far the Royal Commission into the Financial Services Industry has received more than 9000 submissions.

Mr Shorten said he had asked Ms O’Neil to go around Australia talking to victims to make sure Labor fully understands the range of stories.

“We’ve been doing that, but I think it is important that we keep the focus on making sure that the victims don’t get forgotten,” he said.

“Specifically what we also want to do is use this to inform what we are looking at in terms of policy contributions to the royal commission in their phase when they’re looking for policy ideas and reforms, but to return to where we started, we think that the banking sector in Australia has got a lot of explaining to do.

“One of the core factors in the banking sector’s problems, at the heart of the matter, is the bonus and remunerations system.

“For too long, it seems that the banks and those who run the banks, have put getting big bonuses ahead of their integrity.

“The crazy thing in Australia for the last number of years is that if you steal from a bank, you go to jail, but if a bank steals from you, the top end get a bonus. This is unacceptable.”

Labor ‘playing politics’ on banks

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg rubbished Mr Shorten for his calls to extend the royal commission, saying Commissioner Hayne had made it clear that all 9000 submissions had been read and would be taken into account in his final report.

“He’s actually called for further public submissions, so people will have the opportunity to put their story to the Royal Commissioner,” Mr Frydenberg said.

“At the same time, he has also acknowledged that the existence of the royal commission does create issues of confidence, or challenges confidence, in the financial system.

“So it’s his job to get on and execute his roles promptly and effectively, and that is what he is doing. But if the Royal Commissioner needs more time to produce his final report, he will be given it. That’s our clear message.”

Mr Frydenberg accused Labor of playing politics.

“Bill Shorten thinks he knows better than the Royal Commissioner,” he said.

“Bill Shorten wants to play politics, the Royal Commissioner wants to deliver.

“The government’s interest, Scott Morrison’s interests, are in ensuring that this behaviour does not happen again. That’s our responsibility.”

Mr Frydenberg said the government would do all it could to ensure a greater culture of compliance and better conduct in the banking and financial systems.

“Greed has been the motive here. Sales have been pursued at the expense of all else,” he said.

“Fairness, honesty and decency have gone out the door as profits over people have motivated the banks.”

‘I wish Bill Shorten listened more when he was financial services minister’

Liberal backbencher Michael Sukkar said he wished Bill Shorten and Labor did a bit more listening to aggrieved bank customers when they were in government.

“I mean when most of these egregious events occurred that we heard about in the banking royal commission, most of these terrible examples that we saw really graphically outlined in front of Kenneth Hayne, most of those occurred not just when Labor was in government, but when Bill Shorten was the financial services minister, so I wish he did a bit more listening when he was the minister,” Mr Sukkar said.

“So, look, the Labor Party will exploit anybody for a political advantage.

“Our view is we put in place Kenneth Hayne to undertake the royal commission.

“Some in the Labor Party criticised that appointment. I think they’re now eating their words.

“I think it’s been proven that he has been someone that has forensically got to the bottom of a lot of the problems.

“We’ll wait to see what further statements he has to make in his final report, but we’re going to be in the end led by the things that he wants as the royal commissioner, not what the Labor Party wants, who again, will use any tragic circumstances to exploit for political purposes.”

Labor holds own bank hearings

Labor financial services spokeswoman Clare O’Neil said Labor was holding its own consultations, because it believes bank victims should have their stories heard.

“We’ve locked in the timetable for this week, which is to be in Melbourne today, in South Australia tomorrow and in Geelong on Friday, and we’ll release a further timetable into the end of the week,” Ms O’Neil told ABC radio.

She said Labor would not be able to speak to all 9000 people who had made submissions.

“But Labor believes that there’s a very legitimate and important role for bank victims as part of the conversation about the royal commission, and that’s why we’re seeking to include them,” Mr O’Neil said.

“It’s both Labor’s attempt to offer these people what we believe they have a right to do, which is participate in the royal commission’s process, but it’s also going to help us with our policy development.

“One of the big frustrations we have is that Scott Morrison didn’t want this royal commission to happen and he didn’t give the royal commission enough time, and that’s really why we’ve heard from so few bank victims as part of the process, but one thing I just know as a politician is you learn so much from speaking to people who’ve been adversely affected by a policy problem.

“I just know that they are going to help us find the solution to making banking fairer in Australia.”

Ms O’Neil said she accepted that the 27 people whose evidence had been heard by the commission had been chosen because their cases were pertinent to widespread problems.

“Absolutely accept that, and the royal commission has said that it has read the letters that have come in and the submissions that have come in from bank victims,” she said.
“Just in my discussions with bank victims, I don’t think they’re satisfied, and this is not about the royal commission and its process, it’s about the government, and the government’s unwillingness to give the royal commission the time it needed.”

Challenged over the reality that Commissioner Hayne has chosen not to ask for more time, Ms O’Neil said her conversation was not with the Commissioner.

“I would never seek to interfere with the work that the royal commission is doing,” she said.

“Everywhere I go people are speaking with such respect for the Royal Commissioner and the way that he is trying to get this done in the time that he’s been given, but I think any sensible person looking at the scope that this royal commission has been given, and indeed looking at the interim report released on Friday, would see that the Morrison government has not given this royal commission enough time.

“I’m just not going to get into a discussion with the Royal Commissioner. It’s not about that. “This is about whether the government has got the guts and is in this to actually resolve the problems in banking misconduct, and if they were, they would give the royal commission more time to get into these issues.

“If you encourage your listeners to have a look at the interim report that was released on Friday, a lot of people were expecting that report to contain specific proposals for reform, because the deadline for this final report of the royal commission is four months away, but instead of having proposals for reform, we’ve got a set of really important questions that are still being asked about the nature of misconduct in financial services.

“Now I believe that a responsible government would give the royal commission more time to move from where they are now to essentially a shovel-ready reform project, which is what Labor wants out of this royal commission process.

“We want to have a future Shorten Labor government, if elected, to have the top priority reforming this sector, and that’s why we want the royal commission to work. That’s our only motivation.”

Labor wrote to the government earlier this year asking for the establishment of a compensation fund for bank victims.

Asked how much money a Labor government would commit, Ms O’Neil said the opposition had exercised a “lot of discipline” to try no to pre-empt the royal commission’s findings.

“I do think it’s quite unhelpful to have pushed for a royal commission, asked for someone to look at these problems in depth, and then be conducting a lot of parallel policy development along the way, so for that reason we have not pursued Labor’s model for a compensation scheme while the royal commission is afoot,” she said.

Ms O’Neil said the amount of money committed to compensation would depend on the royal commission’s findings, but was certainly something that “comes up a lot” in discussions with bank victims.