TURNBULL’S CALL FOR BANKING REFORM IS FIVE YEARS TOO LATE

Malcolm Turnbull needs to explain why it took so long to listen to ASIC to make penalties tougher for the shocking revelations aired at the Royal Commission this week.

 

ASIC first called for tougher penalties way back in October 2013 (page 169) and only now the Liberal Government has thought it might be worth considering.

 

If the Government hadn’t dragged its feet on this, maybe some of the misconduct being uncovered by the Royal Commission never would have happened.

 

If implemented straight away, the tougher penalties may have helped to dissuade some of the cruel crimes of these institutions against pensions, families and small businesses. 

 

And let’s not forget, if Malcolm Turnbull had supported Bill Shorten’s call for a banking and financial services Royal Commission in April 2016, instead of attacking it, the Royal Commission might have concluded by now and we’d be implementing its recommendations.

 

Labor supports tougher penalties that protect working people and small businesses from banks – we just don’t believe that the Liberals will actually do it.

 

If it wasn’t for these revelations in the Royal Commission that Turnbull didn’t want to hold and only Labor had been calling for, the Government may have never come forward with these tougher penalties.