Pay up or get out tomorrow, ANZ told farmers

ANZ told West Australian sheep farmers Janine and Steve Harley they would have just one day to vacate their family property.

Michael and Dimity Hirst: ‘At least our family is still together’. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The ANZ bank told farmers ­Janine and Steve Harley they would have just one day to vacate the sheep property south of Perth their family had owned for more than 100 years, unless they could meet their loan deadline.

The bank sent a default notice to the struggling farmers a few weeks after Mr Harley suffered a heart attack, before giving the couple six months to repay their entire debt.

The financial services royal commission was presented yesterday with several cases where ANZ had evicted farm families, leaving them with nowhere to live, and achieving little or no commercial gain for the bank.

Victorian grain growers Arthur and Rhonda Cheesman were given just six weeks to sell several farms near St Arnaud or face eviction within seven days, which left them homeless after four offers to repay their debt but retain one house block where their son’s young family lived were repeatedly rejected by ANZ.

In Tasmania, cattle, sheep and tree farmers Dimity and Michael Hirst lost everything when ANZ encouraged them to expand and increased their loans.

But the bank reacted as soon as their finances became strained by hiking interest rates, failing to offer debt mediation and imposing no-compromise debt-settlement obligations that left the Hirsts without their farms, their home or any money.

ANZ head of commercial lending Ben Steinberg admitted under questioning yesterday that the bank had not acted fairly, consistently or ethically towards the Hirsts and that the financial ­restrictions imposed had been “tough and difficult”.

He agreed the bank had breached community expectations of how lending institutions should behave. He said the situation would not occur now.

“Today (ANZ) would consider more flexibility, apply a different lens and show more empathy, with a general view towards home retention,” Mr Steinberg said.

“We would not increase (interest rates). We would either leave the price unchanged or in some cases reduce (interest rates) where the customer is currently unable to afford to pay.”

But Mr Steinberg disagreed with the findings of former High Court judge Susan Crennan, who ANZ called in three years ago to independently reassess the fairness of the Hirsts’ evictions and who awarded them $684,000 compensation.

Outside the commission ­yesterday, Ms Hirst said it had been a terrible time and that it felt like vindication to finally have their story told before the commission.

“We haven’t got a farm or a home we own, but at least our family is still together,” she said. “Sadly there are a lot of marriage breakdowns and suicides in banking stories like ours.”

Commissioner Kenneth Hayne repeatedly asked Mr Steinberg to clarify his answers at the Brisbane hearing yesterday, especially those relating to the Harleys, who were given one day to quit their family farm and home 200km south of Perth if unable to fully repay their bank loan.

“It was difficult decision but at some point a line in the sand needs to be drawn and a decision made,” Mr Steinberg said.