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Two years of inaction on Senate banking report

Australian Citizens Party

Key Facts:

• A New Zealand political row over buying back the BNZ has highlighted widespread public anger at how Australia's big four banks, which own New Zealand's major banks, treat their customers.
• The Australian Senate inquiry into regional bank closures, established in February 2023, received over 600 submissions and held 13 public hearings across regional communities, exposing banks' disregard for the impact of branch closures on local residents.
• The inquiry's final report, released in May 2024, recommended designating access to banking and cash as an essential service, establishing a panel to investigate a public bank, and introducing a mandatory Banking Code of Conduct.
• Despite the inquiry's powerful recommendations, the Albanese government has failed to provide even a written response two years on, as it is legally obliged to do, let alone act on the findings.
• Critics argue that government measures such as the big four banks' three-year moratorium on regional closures are insufficient, as the moratorium excludes other banks such as Bendigo, which closed branches in 37 communities in 2025.

The political firestorm in New Zealand over NZ First’s election policy to buy back the BNZ from National Australia Bank reveals the depth of anger in the community over the way Australia’s big four banks—which own NZ’s banks—treat their customers.

Two years after the Senate report on bank closures in regional Australia recommended steps to improve banking services, the Albanese government is yet to even provide a written response, as it is obliged to do, let alone act on the recommendations.

Says Citizens Party chairman Robert Barwick, “The Senate banking inquiry was a comprehensive, bipartisan investigation of the impact on communities from losing an essential service. Its powerful recommendations should be acted on not ignored.”

Effective inquiry

The Citizens Party is asking whether it is acceptable that the government ignore the report of a major inquiry which cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars?

“The way the inquiry was initiated and performed is an example of parliament performing at its best”, says Barwick.

Amid a flood of bank closures in 2022, independent journalist Dale Webster, who has documented the extent and impact of regional bank closures in her online news service The Regional, and banking expert Martin North, co-wrote to the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee asking for an urgent inquiry.

The Citizens Party supported their call, worked with then-Liberal senator Gerard Rennick to move a motion establishing an inquiry, and lobbied senators to vote for the motion.

Established in February 2023, the inquiry received more than 600 submissions, and over the next 15 months it held 13 public inquiries, including: Launceston, Tasmania; Junee, NSW; Cloncurry, Queensland; Kingston, South Australia; and Carnamah and Tom Price in Western Australia.

In every community hearing, locals pushed back against the big banks’ lie that they don’t use branches and want to bank online. These communities need bank branches and access to cash. Digital banking is unreliable and risky for vulnerable customers and losing local branches in regional areas forces customers to drive hundreds of kilometres for basic banking services.

The senators put tough questions to the representatives of the big banks who attended the hearings, which exposed the banks’ callous disregard for the impact they were having.

Under questioning in Beverly, WA, a BankWest executive suggested there was no point in consulting communities when they were going to close a branch anyway.

The late Labor senator Linda White was especially effective at interrogating the banks and not accepting their platitudes, which included excoriating questions to Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh. The powerful inquiry report is a large part of her legacy.

The scrutiny of the big banks was so effective that, soon after the inquiry started, a rattled Westpac reversed its decision to close seven banks, and CBA announced a three-year moratorium on regional closures, and reversed its decision to close the Junee branch in NSW.

Report

The final report, released on 24 May 2024, contained powerful recommendations, including:

• Designate access to banking and cash an essential service;
• Establish an expert panel to investigate a public bank solution to increase competition for the big banks; and
• A mandatory Banking Code of Conduct (end self-regulation).

Says Barwick, “What has the government done in the last two years?

“They announced big four banks had agreed to a three-year moratorium, but that’s what the banks did after the previous two branch closure inquiries, in 1999 and 2004—and then they got on with mass branch closures again.

“Meanwhile, the moratorium doesn’t cover banks like Bendigo, which smashed 37 communities with branch closures in 2025, including Queenstown, the last bank on Tasmania’s west coast.

“And it’s pretending to support cash while allowing the banks to remove access.

“At best, its actions are band aids, whereas the solutions are in the senate report. The government must end two years of inaction and finally respond.”

About us:

The Australian Citizens Party, founded in 1988, is committed to the policy of re-establishing a public bank, like the original Commonwealth Bank, to serve the Australian people and invest in the real economy. The Citizens Party is critical of the oligopoly power of the Big Four banks, which expect to make enormous profits from the Australian people without providing an adequate service.

Contact details:

Robert Barwick

[email protected]

0409 014 265