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Speaker 1: We've spoken with Senator Matt Canavan before regarding the Regional

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Speaker 1: Banking Inquiry. Came here to Kingston in South Australia in

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Speaker 1: the southeast to have a look at the situation there

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Speaker 1: and have people tell him to tell the inquiry that

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Speaker 1: the issues they face with regional banks or banks in

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Speaker 1: the regions closing their branches. I just read some amazing

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Speaker 1: accounts from the report and some of the evidence presented

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Speaker 1: around the country, including at the town of tom Price,

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Speaker 1: which is a mining town in outback wa where the

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Speaker 1: banks have left and people have either a five to

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Speaker 1: six hour drive on unsealed roads to get to a bank,

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Speaker 1: or drive to a town which is an hour away,

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Speaker 1: hop in a plane, fly to Perth to deposit their

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Speaker 1: takings for the week and then fly home again. How

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Speaker 1: ridiculous is that, of course we need banks in our regions.

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Speaker 1: We need them everywhere. We need them in the suburbs

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Speaker 1: in the city where they still take cash. Unlike at

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Speaker 1: least the A and Z which in king William Street

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Speaker 1: and Adelaide in its you'd think main office has decided

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Speaker 1: it's cash free. A bank without money, a pub without

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Speaker 1: beer is the equivalent obviously, just ridiculous. Senator Back Canavan,

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Speaker 1: who headed the inquiry, is on the line. Senator, good morning,

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Speaker 1: thank you for your time. Just incredible accounts from around

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Speaker 1: the country of people left high and dry.

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Speaker 2: Essentially absolutely right. That was a story that stuck with

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Speaker 2: me there from Tom Price. It's actually an area that

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Speaker 2: produces two percent of our nation's wealth. Alige, just that shire,

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Speaker 2: given its rich iron all wealth and there's not a

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Speaker 2: single bank print or shy now and I dubbed that

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Speaker 2: the flight now from Parapadu to Perth with these suitcases

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Speaker 2: full of cash from small businesses, but must be a

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Speaker 2: drug dealers express on most counter. Just why do they

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Speaker 2: have to take all of this cash? There must be

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Speaker 2: a suspicion why is there all this cash go on

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Speaker 2: this plane? But it's because this crazy situation. We're a

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Speaker 2: thriving town, a thriving country towns. I say, thanks to

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Speaker 2: the Oni, Well doesn't have a single bank branch. And look,

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Speaker 2: obviously technology changing the world, changing how we interact with

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Speaker 2: banks is changing. But the fundamental finding of our inquiries

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Speaker 2: that the way that the banks have shut down banking

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Speaker 2: services across so much of rural Australia has been heartless

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Speaker 2: it's been thoughtless and careless, and our approach to these

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Speaker 2: things have to change.

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Speaker 1: Okay, the ABA will certainly point to that technology angle

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Speaker 1: that you've mentioned. They do say, and I suppose they

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Speaker 1: can back it up with evidence. More of us now

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Speaker 1: on our cards, on our smartphones, tapping and going, and

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Speaker 1: cash is becoming less used. Of course, there are people

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Speaker 1: who say we need to keep it, and we do,

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Speaker 1: but technology has certainly come into it. That is a

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Speaker 1: big player, Isn't it is that hard to overcome?

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Speaker 2: Do you think, oh, it's a challenge, And look, there

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Speaker 2: are good things about that technology of people that live

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Speaker 2: on farms and out of towns now can access banking

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Speaker 2: service as a click of a button where they never

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Speaker 2: had excess of course to a branch, so that's great.

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Speaker 2: But the point here I'm making is that these banks

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Speaker 2: are multi billion dollar organizations. They've made promises to do

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Speaker 2: things like impact statements before they shut a branch in

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Speaker 2: response to other inquiries, and was found that they just

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Speaker 2: do absolutely nothing to think properly about, well, how can

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Speaker 2: we make sure this technological change doesn't leave too many

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Speaker 2: people behind? They could do a lot more here. So,

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Speaker 2: for example, one of these impact statements they prepared was

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Speaker 2: three pages. The only bit of relevant local information, The

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Speaker 2: only bit of information about the local area was the

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Speaker 2: address of the post office in that town where you

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Speaker 2: could go to do some banking after the branch shut.

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Speaker 2: I mean it was treating this approach, was treating country

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Speaker 2: people with contempt. And that's why I reckon to be

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Speaker 2: totally a total change to approach. There needs to be

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Speaker 2: much more strictness and mandatory rules here on the banks

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Speaker 2: to make them live up promises they've made to rural

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Speaker 2: towns in years gone by making the banking code of conduct.

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Speaker 2: It's currently only voluntary and self regulatory. Clearly the banks

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Speaker 2: are not doing a good job of policing themselves. So

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Speaker 2: make the manatory such that a branch shut until the

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Speaker 2: regulator is satisfied that the bank has gone through all

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Speaker 2: these steps, made sure they've done a proper assessment of

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Speaker 2: what the situation in the town will be impacted, particularly

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Speaker 2: vulnerable people like elderly people, indigenous communities, and how they

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Speaker 2: could perhaps do some things. They won't completely leave those

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Speaker 2: people behind. Because while the banks like to quote statistics

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Speaker 2: like nine num percent of people use digital apps in

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Speaker 2: that well, what about the one percent. I mean people

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Speaker 2: in that category, but the banks just seem to think

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Speaker 2: that they don't need to do anything for them. So

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Speaker 2: that's how that's one of our recommendations. But look, ultimately

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Speaker 2: the problem with that it will be I don't want

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Speaker 2: to if people don't want to be a rural town,

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Speaker 2: you know, they're probably not going to be that good

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Speaker 2: of participant in that country town. I'd like to see

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Speaker 2: us encourage more financial services to go back to the

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Speaker 2: bush with organizations that actually do these things. So probably

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Speaker 2: the recommendation I most want to see implemented is a

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Speaker 2: small increase in the major bank levy charged to our

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Speaker 2: top five banks, and use those funds to help set

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Speaker 2: up new branches in rural communities. These are so called

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Speaker 2: community branches. But a community we have to put some

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Speaker 2: money up themselves that we help them, who help themselves

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Speaker 2: and actually set up a branch that they own that

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Speaker 2: they can run that's part of the community, and bring

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Speaker 2: back financial services to the bush.

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Speaker 1: Okay, is that the best way of doing it? What

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Speaker 1: about a public bank? I mean, should we we had

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Speaker 1: the Commonwealth of course once upon a time, But should

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Speaker 1: post officers, for instance, be given a banking license to

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Speaker 1: operate services for people regionally and.

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Speaker 2: The government do a full cost benefit study of that.

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Speaker 2: We felt as a committee that we couldn't quite conclude

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Speaker 2: that because we couldn't do that our selves have the

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Speaker 2: resources for it, and I think to be viable it'd

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Speaker 2: have to operate in urban areas as well. We focus

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Speaker 2: just on rural and regional areas missions about that. Look,

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Speaker 2: there are some models of worked overseas. Kiwi Bank in

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Speaker 2: New Zealand was set up about twenty years ago and

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Speaker 2: it's now got about a fifth of the things in

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Speaker 2: line market. So look, you know that it has been

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Speaker 2: successful and it's definitely something should be looked at. As

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Speaker 2: you say, we already have a sort of halfway moment

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Speaker 2: were Australia Post offer some financial services on behalf of

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Speaker 2: other banks. We think they could be expanded in our recommendations.

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Speaker 2: Another question whether a straight post itself should offer its

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Speaker 2: own financial services. So look, we think they should be

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Speaker 2: looked at, but there's some things we can do in

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Speaker 2: the short term as well. I think to a situation.

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Speaker 1: All right, now, where does this report go from here?

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Speaker 1: The Government needs to look at it take some action,

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Speaker 1: I suppose, otherwise it's going to sit on a shelf

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Speaker 1: with all the other reports collecting dust.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, governments have three months to respond to setting crows,

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Speaker 2: although they often take longer than that. Unfortunately, the Labor

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Speaker 2: setators have dismissed these recommendations, and so that doesn't hold

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Speaker 2: a lot of hope that the government would do something different.

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Speaker 2: It's a bit disappointing because it was a real Byparsan

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Speaker 2: inquiry and none, none of the Labor senators expressed these

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Speaker 2: views while they're at rural towns, but once they got

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Speaker 2: back to Canber, their minds seemed to get changed. Unfortunately.

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Speaker 2: So look, we might need to change the government. I

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Speaker 2: mean obviously lobbing my own colleagues discussions with the Treasure

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Speaker 2: Ugus Taylor about the need for this, and yeah, I'm

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Speaker 2: hopeful that that side of politics will take up these recommendations,

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Speaker 2: these recommendations from both Liberal and Nationals Party senators. We

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Speaker 2: obviously live in the bush. We live in these areas

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Speaker 2: and a shocking was going on. Something has to happen.

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Speaker 2: I don't necessarily expect the black and white recommendations that

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Speaker 2: I've made or our committee's made will be taken up

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Speaker 2: in full, but something needs to change. Here because the

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Speaker 2: current tennis quo has been shown to be and showed

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Speaker 2: to be a complete failure money through in action of

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Speaker 2: the banks.

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Speaker 1: All right, Matt Canavan. We hope it will be taken

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Speaker 1: up in due course because certainly people in the regions

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Speaker 1: particularly crying out for it, and here in the Metro

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Speaker 1: area as well, where branches are becoming cash free. It

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Speaker 1: just is absolutely ridiculous. But really appreciate your time at

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Speaker 1: the moment.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Thanks very much, have a good day you too.

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Speaker 1: Senator Matt Canavan, head of the Banking Inquiry, Regional Banking Inquiry,

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Speaker 1: coming down with eight recommendations, including providing banks must provide

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Speaker 1: essential services as you discussed, the mandatory code of practice,

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Speaker 1: and a committee recommending the Government Commission and a panel

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Speaker 1: to investigate the feasibility of establishing a publicly owned bank

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Speaker 1: across the country. So all that to come hopefully sooner

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Speaker 1: than later. Absolutely for people and especially for places like

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Speaker 1: tom Price in WA and Nepilborough where it's a five

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Speaker 1: or six hour drive on unsealed roads to get to

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Speaker 1: a bank, or you drive for an hour to an

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Speaker 1: airport for a flight to Perth to deposit your takings

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Speaker 1: for the week. But that's a situation. So we need

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Speaker 1: the regions fixed, and certainly in the Metro area as well.

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Speaker 1: Banks going cash free. I mean, if you'd said that

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Speaker 1: to somebody in one hundred year years ago, your bank

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Speaker 1: is going to still exist, but it just won't handle money.

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Speaker 1: They think you're crazy. Well that's where we're at today