Scott Morrison calls crisis talks with banks

Illustration: Rod Clement.

Scott Morrison has summoned the chairs of Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ and National Australia Bank to a series of urgent, private meetings amid mounting internal pressure from Coalition MPs for an inquiry into the big four banks.

It is understood the Treasurer’s office has requested as-soon-as-possible appointments for Morrison with the ­Commonwealth Bank’s Catherine Livingstone, ANZ’s David Gonski, Westpac’s Lindsay Maxsted and NAB’s Ken Henry to be held before the delayed ­sitting of the House of Representatives on December 4.

It is believed Morrison will discuss with the bank leaders those issues that continue to be presented to Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership team by those Liberal and Nationals members whose electorate offices have transformed into complaint centres for aggrieved bank ­customers.

The high-level meetings come as Nationals senator (and property baron) Barry O’Sullivan calls for a commission of ­inquiry into the banks, to which the Turnbull government is ­opposed.

Malcolm Turnbull, right, talks to Alan Tudge and John Calvert-Jones

A commission of inquiry would report to the parliament and not the government. O’Sullivan has claimed several ­Coalition MPs would cross the floor to vote in favour of it. Those votes, combined with the ­support of Bill Shorten’s Labor and the Greens, could see the proposal pass.

The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday reported that Turnbull’s cabinet has discussed dropping its opposition to a banking royal commission.

The meeting with the banking chairs is seen as a fresh move by Morrison to stave off his MPs’ calls for an inquiry. He is seeking the chairs’ reassurances and help to resolve historic banking ­disputes that vocal constituents are raising with their parliamentary representatives.

In an effort to address concerns about banking scandals, Morrison and Turnbull have already increased funding to the corporate watchdog, ASIC, and have forced banking CEOs to appear twice a year before a parliamentary inquiry. In the last budget they also imposed a $6.2 billion levy on the big four and Macquarie Bank.

What next?

Vic Libs’ family feud

The Victorian Liberal Party’s family feud is off to the federal court.

At 5pm yesterday, president Michael Kroger’s Victorian Liberal Party commenced legal proceedings against its biggest donor, the $70 million Charles Goode-chaired Cormack Foundation.

The action happened despite the Cormack board earlier in the day outlining terms of arbitration, which could have resolved the ownership dispute by July, likely far before the federal court would settle the matter and without the bad publicity. Needless to say, the Cormack crew were unimpressed. “Unfortunately, the Liberal Party had made the decision to direct funds that would otherwise have been dedicated to winning elections to resolve an unnecessary dispute of its own making,” said a Cormack spokesman.

The battle over the ownership of Cormack’s $70m fund has divided members of the Liberals’ Victorian division, which has historically been the best source of funds across the country. In its almost three decades of history, Cormack has donated more than $60m to the Liberals. But two separate $25,000 donations last year to David Leyonhjelm’s Liberal Democrats and Bob Day’s Family First enraged some party officials.

The stoush between Kroger and Cormack has halted all donations this year, a source of increasing anxiety for Victorian Liberal leader Matthew Guy, who is only a year away from an election against Daniel Andrews. The PM is also taking an interest ahead of his next campaign.

The Cormack directors had preferred to settle the ownership conflict by arbitration and said they believed an agreement on arbitration terms “was quite achievable by Friday”.

“Our team believes that a reasonable arbitration finalisation target could be as early as July 2018,” Cormack’s spokesman added. Earlier in the morning, Goode and his fellow Cormack directors, Newcrest chairman Peter Hay, Fawkner Capital’s Fred Grimwade, investment banker Richard Balderstone, Flagstaff Partners’ David Williamson, lawyer Charles Spargo, and Cormack’s founding directors and Liberal Party grandees John Calvert-Jones and Hugh Morgan, met in Melbourne before their lawyers sent Kroger their revised arbitration proposal, which the president promptly rejected.

In happier times

The night before firing off his legal action, president Michael Kroger joined Malcolm Turnbull and Energy and Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg for part two of Menzies Research Centre boss Nick Cater’s Forgotten People festival.

Also along: John Calvert-Jones and the Cormack Foundation’s barrister in the nasty dispute, Allan Myers.

When they’re not dragging each other through the federal court, they are one big happy family in Kroger’s Victorian division.

Others in the crowd at Hawthorn Town Hall, which sits in Robert Menzies’ former seat of Kooyong, now represented by Frydenberg, were the former IPA duo Tim Wilson and James Paterson, Human Services Minister Alan Tudge and the Liberals’ member for Chisholm Julia Banks, who seemed to find some of the Speaker’s citizenship jokes a little edgy. “Too soon,” Banks was overheard saying after one gag.

Bowen goes coastal

Labor Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen has more to look forward to than the ongoing spectacle of Scott Morrison trying to stave off a backbench banking revolt.

Bowen and his industrial relations consultant wife Rebecca Mifsud have begun the construction of their new, two-storey holiday house at Bawley Point on the NSW south coast.

It’s the perfect location to revive Australian politics’ most famous summer beard.

The couple bought a 730sq m vacant block on the headland last year for $295,000 and have spent this year liaising with Shoalhaven Council to get their low-key plans for the development approved. The project is estimated to cost $550,000 for the Member for McMahon, a western Sydney bastion of tangy Laotian food and opposition to same-sex marriage.

The plans are approved, the borrowings secured and work has begun, with a home completion date some time after this summer.

Bawley Point is just south of Mollymook, about 2½ hours from Canberra and 3½ hours from Sydney: a perfect location for the political family.

But the opposition Treasury spokesman won’t be totally anonymous in his seaside retreat.

Fairfax boss Greg Hywood and journalist Kate Legge, together with the ABC’s Barrie Cassidy and Heather Ewart, have long held property there, while Bowen’s boss Bill Shorten has also holidayed in the coastal spot.