Bank Australia: Calls for licence to be revoked over ethical banking stance
Bank Australia is facing calls for its financial services licence to be revoked over how it treats farmers. Now it is hitting back.
Bank Australia has rushed to clarify it does not exclude farmers or the livestock industry, after recently being accused of breaching consumer watchdog rules by refusing financial services to organisations using intensive animal farming systems.
It comes as Queensland farming body AgForce called on the Reserve Bank to rescind Bank Australia’s licence.
The Red Meat Advisory Council recently wrote to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission requesting “alleged contraventions” of Australia’s secondary boycott provisions by Bank Australia and Animals Australia for “refusing financial services” be investigated. AgForce chief executive Michael Guerin accused Bank Australia of “telling lies” to “actively undermine national interest by jeopardising productivity, jobs and international relations.
“To us, the agricultural industry in Australia is one of the best in the world, it’s something all of Australia can be proud of,” Mr Guerin said.
“The industry in Australia is essentially a supply chain of small businesses. Yet what we see is banks being hoodwinked by the anti-farming brigade.”
“It’s incredibly frustrating. It just makes no sense to us … the banks in Australia live with the privilege of a government guarantee, and one of their obligations is to provide capital to law-abiding businesses. If they start to decide to be lawmaker and decisions maker, they should be held to account.”
A Bank Australia spokesman clarified the bank’s policy does not exclude farmers or the livestock sector, and labelled any claims otherwise as “unfounded”.
“What it does mean is that when we lend to businesses and farming operations, it’s because they employ practices that don’t compromise the welfare of animals,” the spokesman said.
“It goes without saying that everything we do is in keeping with the rules and obligations of our banking licence.
“To suggest otherwise is misleading and mischievous.”
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