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Speaker 1: A big report day for big issues. Report number two

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Speaker 1: the Electricity Authority and power will come to that later

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Speaker 1: on Report number one, the ComCom and the business of banking.

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Speaker 1: The market doesn't work. More banks would help. How to

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Speaker 1: get more banks, how to get less regulation, how to

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Speaker 1: get better deals for the customer. Firstly, don't hold your breath.

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Speaker 1: The ComCom has looked into power, petrol, banking, supermarkets, not

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Speaker 1: a lot changes. Nikola Willis didn't help yesterday morning when

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Speaker 1: she said, in response to a perfectly legitimate question about

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Speaker 1: lending practices, that a bank ceo had said they weight

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Speaker 1: farms differently from houses in terms of risk. Willis said, well,

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Speaker 1: they can tell that to the Select Committee, which, as

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Speaker 1: far as I could work out, means nothing. Given I'm

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Speaker 1: sure they will. Then, when asked about the banking lobby

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Speaker 1: being powerful, she said they may be powerful, but democracy

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Speaker 1: is more powerful. Once again, it means nothing. What she

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Speaker 1: said and was avoiding was the question will you legislate,

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Speaker 1: And she was avoiding that because she's not legislating the

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Speaker 1: same way the previous government made a lot of noise

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Speaker 1: about supermarkets and petrol, but we're never going to legislate Hi. Instead,

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Speaker 1: what we got was a sign on the footpath showing

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Speaker 1: the ninety eight price, and a grocery commissioner who so

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Speaker 1: far is limited to press releases. Here's your trouble. We

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Speaker 1: have a lot of banks, we just don't use them.

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Speaker 1: We can switch banks, we choose not to. Yes, the

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Speaker 1: rules the Reserve Bank has in place to make banks

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Speaker 1: hold money could be changed. Some of the regulation could

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Speaker 1: be changed. But will it materially fix the market. No. This,

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Speaker 1: as I always say, is not to defend banks. Banks

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Speaker 1: are highly profitable, their margins are higher here than Australia.

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Speaker 1: That's a talking point. But the mistake that is made

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Speaker 1: almost every time, whether it's banks, supermarkets, or petrol stations

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Speaker 1: or telcos, is the hype never plays out in reality.

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Speaker 1: The jawboning gets the headlines, the action fades into obscurity.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk in a year and you can show me

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Speaker 1: how fundamentally different the banking scene is or not. For

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Speaker 1: more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news

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Speaker 1: talks that'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the

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Speaker 1: podcast on iHeartRadio.