Politicians, regulators and the media must all be held to account for
failing to expose wrongdoing uncovered in the banking royal commission
Hate
to break it to you Australia but this country has been totally fooled
by government and our financial regulators over the years. Any
government minister, or member of one of the regulators, who claimed
that all was sweet as pie in the lucky country’s banking system prior to
the Hayne royal commission should take a long hard look at the impact
millions of Australian households may feel as the sector remakes its
business model – with potentially devastating consequences for the
economy.
As some of us have long been arguing, the people responsible for regulating the financial industry have failed, going all the way through Asic, Apra and members of government. And it is this regulatory capture – a term to describe when watchdogs are effectively controlled by the industry they are supposed to be monitoring – that was the reason the royal commission into the banks took so long to be established. This is because highly paid regulatory insiders knew that a lot of dodgy stuff was going on but failed to say anything. And they tried to the end to prevent all the misconduct from coming out into the public domain.
Had more members of the mainstream media too taken the warnings by those whistleblowers who were banging the drum – and, more importantly, victims of these financial crimes – instead of glorifying a red-hot property market, we may not have had to wait for Team Hayne to do the job.
Questions must be asked if the media was also broadly captured by Australia’s banking powerhouse. If this is the case, many business and investigative journalists, alongside their editors, will have to hold on to their conscience that they likely not only missed the scoops of a lifetime but ignored a long list of financial crime victims who approached the media but were never responded to. Asic, Apra, the financial ombudsmen and the government failed Australia’s victims of financial crimes. And, more often than not, so did the media.
It was refreshing to see Barnaby Joyce admit that it was a mistake to not back a royal commission. Like him or not, his action and change in his point of view deserves respect. Furthermore, to see the odd journalist holding the industry and its regulators to account too is brave. Redemption and rebuilding trust for journalists and politicians may not be so easy but it is possible.
On the other hand, doubling down, not holding any accountability in
such a moment is an insult to Australians. And in Sunday’s interview on
ABC’s Insiders, Kelly O’Dwyer, the minister for financial services and
revenue, could not muster up the courage to apologise for or admit to getting it wrong on the royal commission.
This trainwreck of an interview makes it hard to restore trust in
politicians and their interest in protecting the public over protecting
the banks.
With an exposé of rampant misconduct within the financial services sector, identifying who among our regulators are accountable is the next course of action for the prime minister when he returns to Australia from his European trip. Because there is no doubt people expect those government-paid bureaucrats who prevented serious allegations of misconduct from hitting the airwaves to be sacked. And if the Turnbull government is to walk into the next election with any chance of victory (or dignity), the bad hires that sit on Turnbull’s frontbench who banged the drum against a royal commission must be held to account and replaced.
With confidence in the Australian banking sector fast eroding to an irrevocable level, rebuilding trust with the public will not be easy for Australia’s financial institutions. Furthermore, if banks now have to lend to borrowers within the laws, stop forging borrower documentation to increase borrowing capacities, not charge a fee for not providing a service, stop billing the deceased, tell the truth to the regulators and, more importantly, actually face penalties for misconduct instead of the regulators sweeping the misconduct under the rug, it will be very hard for the banking system to find ways to grow and not shrink. With banking such a large part of the economy – the big four alone make up nearly 25% of the value of the ASX200 – any problems in the sector will be magnified to become a very serious problem for the country as a whole.
The humble pie that the good people of Australia will likely have to bitterly eat due to the inactions of a few unfortunately may come at a high cost. Royal commissions are not pretty. But let’s hope we are a better country for it somewhere down the line.
As some of us have long been arguing, the people responsible for regulating the financial industry have failed, going all the way through Asic, Apra and members of government. And it is this regulatory capture – a term to describe when watchdogs are effectively controlled by the industry they are supposed to be monitoring – that was the reason the royal commission into the banks took so long to be established. This is because highly paid regulatory insiders knew that a lot of dodgy stuff was going on but failed to say anything. And they tried to the end to prevent all the misconduct from coming out into the public domain.
Had more members of the mainstream media too taken the warnings by those whistleblowers who were banging the drum – and, more importantly, victims of these financial crimes – instead of glorifying a red-hot property market, we may not have had to wait for Team Hayne to do the job.
Questions must be asked if the media was also broadly captured by Australia’s banking powerhouse. If this is the case, many business and investigative journalists, alongside their editors, will have to hold on to their conscience that they likely not only missed the scoops of a lifetime but ignored a long list of financial crime victims who approached the media but were never responded to. Asic, Apra, the financial ombudsmen and the government failed Australia’s victims of financial crimes. And, more often than not, so did the media.
It was refreshing to see Barnaby Joyce admit that it was a mistake to not back a royal commission. Like him or not, his action and change in his point of view deserves respect. Furthermore, to see the odd journalist holding the industry and its regulators to account too is brave. Redemption and rebuilding trust for journalists and politicians may not be so easy but it is possible.
With an exposé of rampant misconduct within the financial services sector, identifying who among our regulators are accountable is the next course of action for the prime minister when he returns to Australia from his European trip. Because there is no doubt people expect those government-paid bureaucrats who prevented serious allegations of misconduct from hitting the airwaves to be sacked. And if the Turnbull government is to walk into the next election with any chance of victory (or dignity), the bad hires that sit on Turnbull’s frontbench who banged the drum against a royal commission must be held to account and replaced.
With confidence in the Australian banking sector fast eroding to an irrevocable level, rebuilding trust with the public will not be easy for Australia’s financial institutions. Furthermore, if banks now have to lend to borrowers within the laws, stop forging borrower documentation to increase borrowing capacities, not charge a fee for not providing a service, stop billing the deceased, tell the truth to the regulators and, more importantly, actually face penalties for misconduct instead of the regulators sweeping the misconduct under the rug, it will be very hard for the banking system to find ways to grow and not shrink. With banking such a large part of the economy – the big four alone make up nearly 25% of the value of the ASX200 – any problems in the sector will be magnified to become a very serious problem for the country as a whole.
The humble pie that the good people of Australia will likely have to bitterly eat due to the inactions of a few unfortunately may come at a high cost. Royal commissions are not pretty. But let’s hope we are a better country for it somewhere down the line.
- Lindsay David is the author of Australia: Boom to Bust and Print: The Central Bankers Bubble
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