Corporate greed at the expense of everyday Australians leaves a sick taste in my mouth | Peter Goers

Big business are the leaders of abusing, denying and ignoring their customers, Peter Goers says. And there’s one group that’s leading the charge.

Beware the oligarchy. It’s coming for you. It’s a four-headed monster menacing our lives.

It cares only about making money for a privileged few at the expense of the rest of us.

Australia’s big four banks are an oligarchy and together with other huge, highly profitable corporations (is there any other kind?) they promote greed over need.

Shareholders are much more important than customers and we are no longer even customers but stakeholders and we’re being merrily screwed.

The big four banks have posted record profits of $25bn in the past financial year which is a bonanza for their shareholders and upper management.

The Commonwealth Bank announced a $2.5bn profit for the first quarter of 2023/24 during the week. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Glenn Campbell

The iniquitous rises in interest rates are helping the banks and disadvantaging customers.

Those interest rate hikes are supposed to keep inflation down. You could’ve fooled me.

The banks are making a fortune from anyone who owes them money and being cheeseparing about increasing interest rates for anyone with savings.

Banks with vast profits don’t have to pass on interest rate rises.

Those big banks make even more money for their spoiled shareholders by closing branches, cutting services and jobs.

As customers we are ransomed to our banks. No-one wants to go through the hell of changing banks and what’s the point as the big four banks are as bad as each other.

Banks are closing more and more branches, particularly in regional areas.

Eye-watering CEO salaries are the new norm.

Shemara Wikramanayake, the CEO of Macquarie Bank, earns $23,718,378 a year. That’s $456,122.654 a week, $91,224.53 a day or $11,403 an hour. Does she get overtime? Bonuses?

Telstra CEO Andy Penn is one of the lowest paid CEOs of a major corporation but he gets by on $8,401,000 a year. How does he do it?

Qantas posted a profit of $2.47bn and former CEO Alan Joyce’s golden handshake was $21.4m.

He and his shareholders have been rewarded for cutting services, cutting jobs, misleading a faithful public with flights that didn’t exist and, allegedly, stopping competition.

Shareholders rejoice and laugh all the way to their first class seats.

I’ve never owned stocks or shares. But the irony is we are all shareholders in our superannuation schemes.

Australia's four big banks – Commonwealth, Westpac, NAB and ANZ – are money making machines … a lot of the time at their customers’ expense. Picture: NCA NewsWire

However that is indirect shareholding over which we have almost no control but we do all benefit.

There is no end to corporate greed. We despair and as customers as we wait on the phone for 45 minutes to our bank which has just made $7bn profit and is merrily making more by not answering our call promptly.

As customers we are abused, denied and ignored by a lack of corporate responsibility.

The rich get shares and the rest of us struggle to share shrinking respect as customers.

Shame

The SA Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act of 2016 makes it illegal for someone to live for more than 30 days in a caravan on private land.

So in the middle of an epochal rental and homelessness crisis you will be evicted from your caravan on private land.

Apparently a caravan requires development approval. What development?

This is a very bad social development in this crisis. People need help and shelter not the cruelty of abhorrent regulation. For shame.

Peter Goers can be heard weeknights and Sundays on ABC Radio Adelaide

Originally published as Corporate greed at the expense of everyday Australians leaves a sick taste in my mouth | Peter Goers