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Speaker 1: Let's talk about bank closures, branch closures, that is, where

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Speaker 1: banks have been disappearing left, right and center across the

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Speaker 1: metro area, across regional areas as we know, and certainly

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Speaker 1: there's been a regional inquiry banking inquiry into closures, particularly

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Speaker 1: in outlying areas where we know, for instance, Kuba ped

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Speaker 1: all the banks have left and I suppose the post

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Speaker 1: office up there has been doing a roaring trade. But

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Speaker 1: it's not good for people in the town, clearly where

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Speaker 1: they don't have a branch for hundreds of kilometers around them.

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Speaker 1: Robert Sims Green's upper House MP might have an answer

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Speaker 1: to this.

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Speaker 2: Robert, good morning, Good morning, matth. You're hope you're keeping warm.

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Speaker 2: It's freezing this morning.

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Speaker 1: It's been cold, hasn't it, And well it's winter as

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Speaker 1: we know. Hey, what are you proposing here? What's the

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Speaker 1: way to stop this happening? Banks pulling out their branches

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Speaker 1: around the place.

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Speaker 2: So the Greens have been looking at what we can

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Speaker 2: do to target this behavior by the banks. When part resumes,

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Speaker 2: the governments can be putting forward a bill to Parliament

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Speaker 2: that deals with some changes to stamp duty for first homeowners.

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Speaker 2: And so we're opening up that whole question of stamp

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Speaker 2: duty policy. We're going to then move to shift the

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Speaker 2: stamp duty burden onto banks. When they sell off a

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Speaker 2: bank branch and we charge them more than just the

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Speaker 2: going rate, it would be a twenty percent of the

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Speaker 2: land value. Now. I know that the banks, of course

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Speaker 2: have got big profits, a big pockets, big profits, but

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Speaker 2: what we want to do is get them to pay

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Speaker 2: some sort of penalty for the fact that they're shirking

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Speaker 2: their responsibility to the broader community. I mean, I think

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Speaker 2: a lot of South Australians I talk to find the

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Speaker 2: conduct of the banks just absolutely galling. They're making huge

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Speaker 2: profits at the moment off the back of storing interest rates,

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Speaker 2: and yet at the same time they're crying poor and

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Speaker 2: closing their local bank branches. There's been sixty nine bank

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Speaker 2: branch closed its closures in regional areas in twenty twelve.

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Speaker 2: I just think that's absolutely outrageous.

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Speaker 1: How many in the Metro area, because quite a few

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Speaker 1: have gone locally as well.

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Speaker 2: I don't have the Metro and figures in front of me,

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Speaker 2: but what I can tell you is it's becoming a

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Speaker 2: huge issue right across the States. So you know, Golden

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Speaker 2: Grove as their bank branch. Commonwealth Bank is closing up

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Speaker 2: in the CBD and a few years ago now the

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Speaker 2: banks closed their branches along Hut Street and there's a

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Speaker 2: lot of older residents in that area now that are

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Speaker 2: finding it really difficult to be able to access just

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Speaker 2: basic banking services near where they live. This really has

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Speaker 2: an isolating effect on a lot of people in the community.

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Speaker 2: And you know, banks have very favorable economic conditions here

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Speaker 2: in Australia, they get a lot of government support. The

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Speaker 2: least they can do is provide some basic level of

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Speaker 2: community service. So I'm hoping that Labor and the Liberals

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Speaker 2: will work with the Greens on this and that we

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Speaker 2: can really send them a message that this conduct is unacceptable.

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Speaker 1: What if they don't own the building, what if they're

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Speaker 1: renting it and move out at the end of the lease,

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Speaker 1: what do you do then? Yeah.

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Speaker 2: One of the challenges I have, and one of the

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Speaker 2: reasons why we really want to have another member in

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Speaker 2: the Green team in the Lower House is in the

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Speaker 2: Upper House we were restricted in terms of what we

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Speaker 2: can do with money bills. So we can amend the

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Speaker 2: stamp duty provisions because the government's bill relates to stamp duty.

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Speaker 2: But if the government wanted to work with us and

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Speaker 2: go further to deal with this least question, then I'd

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Speaker 2: absolutely welcome that. I think it'd be really good to

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Speaker 2: close all the potential loopholes here as well.

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Speaker 1: Do you think you'll get support. You've written to both

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Speaker 1: the government and opposition on this. Have you heard anything back.

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Speaker 2: Well, I only wrote to them on Monday. But you know,

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Speaker 2: back in March of last year, I moved a motion

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Speaker 2: in the Upper House condemning bank closures here in South Australia.

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Speaker 2: Every political party supported it. The vote was unanimous. I

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Speaker 2: would hope that all parties would support this move. What

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Speaker 2: reason can one think of to oppose it? You've got

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Speaker 2: banks making huge profits, You've got communities being left high

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Speaker 2: and dry. Asking them to cough up a bit of

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Speaker 2: dough and in recognition of the fact that they're actually

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Speaker 2: shirking their social responsibility, I think is really reasonable.

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Speaker 1: Actually, what should happen nationally, particularly for regions? Should post

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Speaker 1: officers be upgraded? Should they be a bank? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Look, I think one of the recommendations coming out of

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Speaker 2: the National Inquiry into this is that there should be

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Speaker 2: a public bank that's made available and I'm certainly supportive

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Speaker 2: of that idea and also looking at what could be

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Speaker 2: done to encourage community banking and community services. That means

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Speaker 2: retaining post offices as well, making sure that those banking

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Speaker 2: services are available within those facilities too, But that can

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Speaker 2: come with risks as well for post offices, just they've

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Speaker 2: got to carry a lot of money. They're not necessarily

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Speaker 2: always set up for that either. I just I think

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Speaker 2: we've got to have a serious conversation in our country

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Speaker 2: around what is the responsibility of these big corporations. You know,

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Speaker 2: they're making huge profits that the big banks made fifteen

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Speaker 2: billion dollars of profit over the last six months. I mean,

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Speaker 2: something's got to give in our system, And is it

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Speaker 2: really acceptable to say they can rake in all these profits,

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Speaker 2: interest rates are going sky high and they don't give

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Speaker 2: anything back to the community. I just don't think that's right.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, all right, we'll see where your bill or your

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Speaker 1: proposal goes. Robert It I think has merit anyway. Is

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Speaker 1: any incentive to keep branches open is a good thing.

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Speaker 1: And certainly I think if we did a poll right now,

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Speaker 1: ring in and tell us what you think, everyone would

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Speaker 1: be saying, yes, keep them open for goodness sake, what

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Speaker 1: are they doing and the profit they're making As you say,

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Speaker 1: just huge, thank you for your time.

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Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Matthew. Always good to talk to you.

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Speaker 1: Robert Simms, Upper House, Green's MP,