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Speaker 1: Australia's banking watchdog has publicly sanctioned Westpac over the bank's

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Speaker 1: southern branch closure in Tenant Creek now in September. Back

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, hundreds of Westpac customers in Tenant

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Speaker 1: Creek and surrounding remote communities were alarmed to find that

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Speaker 1: their local branch had closed without notice. For some that

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Speaker 1: change meant that they'd turned to online banking or changing banks,

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Speaker 1: but for others it meant a loss of face to

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Speaker 1: face banking left them unable to access their money. Now

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Speaker 1: joining me on the line is the Member for Barkley,

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Speaker 1: Steve Edgington. Good morning to you, Steve.

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Speaker 2: Good morning and Katie, and good morning to all the listeners.

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Speaker 1: Now, Steve, what did the closure of the Westpac bank

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Speaker 1: mean to locals at the time that this happened.

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Speaker 2: Well, it had a significant impact on Tenant Creek residents

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Speaker 2: and of course the surrounding communities in the Berkley. As

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Speaker 2: I said back in I think it was September twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty two. The bank was virtually open one day and

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Speaker 2: closed the next. And look under the I think there's

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Speaker 2: a closure protocol as well as the banking Code of

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Speaker 2: Practice that what should have happened, There should have been

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Speaker 2: twelve weeks written notice of a bank closing, and the

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Speaker 2: Westpac Corporation clearly didn't abide by those the Code of

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Speaker 2: Conduct and the Code of Practice in regard to closure

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Speaker 2: of banks. So what really happened was that people were

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Speaker 2: virtually told, well, you can just go over to the

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Speaker 2: post office and do your banking there, So there was

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Speaker 2: a complete loss of face to face the banking and

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Speaker 2: customer service. Many people in the Barklay, particularly the vulnerable residents,

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Speaker 2: don't have access to the Internet. Many of those vulnerable

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Speaker 2: residents don't even have a telephone to do telephone banking,

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Speaker 2: so the impact overnight was quite substantial.

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Speaker 1: I bet it, and I know that Tenant Creek or

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Speaker 1: I get the sense, and I'm sure our listeners will

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Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the sense

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Speaker 1: that Tenant Creek is really not the only location where

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Speaker 1: this has happened. You know, we've sort of seen in

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Speaker 1: different more regional towns around Australia where banks have made

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Speaker 1: those decisions to not continue operations. But it has a

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Speaker 1: huge impact on locals that live in those towns. So

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Speaker 1: I get that they're you know, I get that they're

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Speaker 1: commercial decisions that get made, but you sort of just

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Speaker 1: wonder about that customer service, and you know that that

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Speaker 1: loss of face to face banking for locals.

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Speaker 2: Well exactly, And I think since the closure of the

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Speaker 2: Tenant Creek branch, my understanding is that the Catherine branch

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Speaker 2: has also closed. But in regard to that face to

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Speaker 2: face it's as if Westpack has really lost touch with

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Speaker 2: the grass roots customers, the day to day customers that

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Speaker 2: are going in there managing a cash account or a

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Speaker 2: savings account or a chech account. We're talking about small

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Speaker 2: amounts of money where people need to sometimes have that

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Speaker 2: face to face service. They may not have their key

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Speaker 2: card with them, they can talk to somebody over the counter,

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Speaker 2: access their account, find out how much money is in

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Speaker 2: their bank account, and withdraw deposit money there on the spot.

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Speaker 2: So the loss of that face to face service was

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Speaker 2: a huge impact because the reality is that whilst you

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Speaker 2: can withdraw money at the post office, that simply can't

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Speaker 2: happen unless you're there with your key card, identification, a

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Speaker 2: whole range of things. So that face to face service

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Speaker 2: has really been a huge loss and people are still suffering.

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Speaker 2: Katie and many people have tried to work around the closure.

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Speaker 2: Some of the customers have eventually transferred to the A

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Speaker 2: and Z branch Intenet Creek, which is the last bank

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Speaker 2: intended Creek. So people are still work looking through it

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Speaker 2: as we speak.

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Speaker 1: Now, tell me what so from yesterday, obviously this Lenkedy investigation,

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Speaker 1: the Banking Code Compliance Committee then found that Westpac had

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Speaker 1: breached its obligations in a serious and systemic manner over

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Speaker 1: its sudden departure from Tenant Creek. Has there been much

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Speaker 1: reaction to that yesterday from the Tenant Creek locals.

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Speaker 2: Well, there has been, and I did note that some

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Speaker 2: of the locals did speak with the media about that.

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Speaker 2: I'm actually up in Robinson River at the moment as

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Speaker 2: we speak, which is about one hundred and fifty kilometers

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Speaker 2: from Boro Lula. So look, I'll be back there next week.

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Speaker 2: But look, the reality is that people are still talking

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Speaker 2: about it, day in day out, about the loss of

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Speaker 2: Westpact because, as I said, that face to face customer

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Speaker 2: service is gone. And the real problem, of course is

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Speaker 2: that there are a lot of people that use that

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Speaker 2: type of banking service where English is a second or

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Speaker 2: third language. So going into the branch certainly helped them

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Speaker 2: to navigate some of the systems when dealing with day

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Speaker 2: to day banking. But at the time of closure, where

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Speaker 2: people couldn't access their money, put a lot of pressure

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Speaker 2: on the non government services, particularly Catholic Care, who provided

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Speaker 2: some assistance and service to many people around town. But look,

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Speaker 2: when people can't access their money, what it really means

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Speaker 2: is that they can't access the necessities of life, and

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Speaker 2: that's food, drink, and the ability to go and buy

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Speaker 2: groceries at the store. So they did have a huge impact.

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Speaker 1: Now, Steve tell us more broadly, how are things going

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Speaker 1: in the Barkley at the moment. I know you said

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Speaker 1: you're not intendant at the moment, you're aut in one

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Speaker 1: of the community areas, But how are things going at

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Speaker 1: the moments?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, things are going pretty well intented Greek, you know,

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Speaker 2: at the moment, particularly around mining. We've got two mining

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Speaker 2: projects that are moving ahead at the moment. To one

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Speaker 2: of those is Northern Iron, which is a project out

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Speaker 2: near Warrigo, which is about fifty five kilometers from Tenet Creek.

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Speaker 2: So part of that project will be processing tailings to

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Speaker 2: extract the magnetite. There's also another project Tenant Mining, which

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Speaker 2: is on the eastern side of Tenant Creek, and part

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Speaker 2: of that project will be doing some more mining around

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Speaker 2: what's called Nobles Knob, which is an open cup mine

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Speaker 2: that's sat dormant there for twenty five nearly thirty years. So,

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Speaker 2: you know, we're very positive about those projects and hopefully

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Speaker 2: what we'll see is the creation of jobs for local people.

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Speaker 2: Hey tell me.

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Speaker 1: Obviously you're out and about driving around as well. Any

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Speaker 1: updates on the Berkeley Highway. We've been told that there's

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Speaker 1: quite a bit of damage around the place along the highway.

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Speaker 2: Still, Yes, I drove along the Berkeley Highway on Sunday

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Speaker 2: to travel to Bora Lula. The area that's substantially damaged

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Speaker 2: is it's roughly about a fifty kilometer stretch between Three

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Speaker 2: Ways and the Berkley Homestead. Most of that damage is

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Speaker 2: on towards the Stuart Highway, and so the first fifty

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Speaker 2: kilometers from three Ways is substantially damaged. Look, my understanding

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Speaker 2: is that contractors are about to start on the repairs,

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Speaker 2: and that's really good to see. So I do know

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Speaker 2: that the staff in Dipple have been working hard to

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Speaker 2: get that project moving and recently I heard from a

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Speaker 2: contractor that that repairs will be underway pretty soon.

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Speaker 1: Well, Steve Edgington, good to speak with you this morning.

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Speaker 1: Appreciate your time and no doubt we'll talk to you

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Speaker 1: again soon.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie, and good morning to all the listeners.

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Speaker 1: Thank you,