At the dramatic hearings of the Senate inquiry into bank closures in regional Australia in Queensland last week, more than half of the Senators present advocated for a public bank solution.
This is the same solution that the Australian Citizens Party…
At the dramatic hearings of the Senate inquiry into bank closures in regional Australia in Queensland last week, more than half of the Senators present advocated for a public bank solution.
This is the same solution that the Australian Citizens Party is fighting for: a government-owned people’s bank, like the original Commonwealth Bank, operating through post offices, to provide full banking services to every community and force the Big Four private banks to truly compete.
The hearings in Cloncurry and Ingham demonstrated why a people’s bank is the clear solution.
Both towns have Westpac branches, which in February Westpac had announced would close. However, following the first hearing of the inquiry in Sale (Victoria) on the 2nd of March, which exposed Westpac’s lack of consultation with communities before it closed branches, Westpac management declined to attend the Cloncurry and Ingham hearings and announced it would keep the branches open instead.
Both the Cloncurry and Ingham hearings again highlighted the problem of banks not consulting with communities before they decide to close branches.
It’s clear that the reason the banks don’t consult, is that consultation would prove the closures are not justified!
If Westpac can so easily reverse its decision to close eight branches just to avoid being subjected to the scrutiny of a Senate hearing, it proves the closures of those eight branches were never justified, and indicates that many, many other branch closures around Australia, by all Big Four banks, are also unjustified.
All the community witnesses at the Cloncurry hearing emphasised that closing the Cloncurry branch made absolutely no business sense whatsoever.
Cloncurry Mayor Greg Campbell highlighted that the Cloncurry region is booming economically. It is a centre of the thriving cattle industry, and the so-called new economy resources industries (including copper and other minerals) in Australia, and it is being developed even further with new projects ..
