Greens back Hockey in banks brawl

THE Greens have thrown their support behind opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey in his brawl with the banks.

THE Greens have thrown their support behind opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey in his brawl with the banks.

Greens leader Bob Brown said his party shared Mr Hockey's concerns that small and medium business were being squeezed by banks making record profits.

"We share his view that an ACCC review of whether the banks are involved in collusive price signalling on interest rates will do no harm," Senator Brown said.

He said he was looking forward to talking to Mr Hockey about ways to give Australian deposit holders and borrowers a better go.

"We'd like to know what Mr Hockey's priorities are and add a few ideas of our own, like ending the ATM fees rip-off," Senator Brown said.

He said Greens MP Adam Bandt already had a bill coming before parliament in next month's sittings that included measures to stop banks charging $2 ATM fees, along with mortgage rate hikes and exit fees.

Despite expressing serious concerns earlier this week about the takeover of the ASX by the Singapore exchange, Mr Hockey said yesterday the Coalition would wait for more details on the proposal before it formed an opinion.

"We had a very good meeting with the Australian stock exchange this morning. They are going to provide us with a significant amount of further information. We will carefully consider that information," he said in Sydney. "But I pointed out to the Australian stock exchange, and I point out to others, this is a decision for the government.

"The government needs to show Australians how it is in the national interest for the ASX to be purchased by the Singapore exchange.

"We owe it to everyone involved to obtain more information and that's what we've asked for."

Mr Hockey said he was misquoted earlier this week when he was reported as saying the merger would put Australia's chances of becoming a global financial centre at risk.

"I actually said we have concerns that it may put at risk Australia's reputation as a regional financial centre," he said.

"The government needs to make a decision on this, not the opposition. It's the government that will have to put any regulatory change to the parliament, and then we'll form an opinion."

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel joined the growing chorus of concern about collusion and price signalling between banks.

Mr Samuel said in Perth he did not want to enter what had become a highly political debate, but he agreed the competition watchdog needed stronger powers to deal effectively with price signalling and information exchange between competitors in a raft of industries.

Banks were only one area of concern.

Additional reporting: Amanda O'Brien