CANBERRA, Australia, Feb 5 (NNN-XINHUA) – Former Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, conceded he should have called the landmark banking royal commission 18 months earlier.
Turnbull, who was deposed as leader of the governing Liberal Party in Aug, 2018, caved under pressure from the Australian Labour Party (ALP), Greens and National Party of Australia, and agreed to establish the commission in Nov, 2017.
The decision came despite the government having previously voted against the commission, 26 times in parliament, under the leadership of Turnbull and his predecessor, Tony Abbott.
The final report from the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry was made public on Monday, revealing widespread systematic misconduct.
“There were some cases, examples of wrongdoing, that came out in the royal commission that shocked me, in the sense that I did not believe the cultural failures had been as bad as that,” Turnbull told reporters today.
“I believe, with the benefit of hindsight we should have held the royal commission earlier,” Turnbull said.
“But I think what the royal commission did is provided something of a shock treatment, to ram home the need for that cultural change. So I think that is going to be very important for faith and confidence,” Turnbull said.
Commissioner Kenneth Hayne condemned Australia’s big four banks and financial services giant AMP, for prioritising profits over their customers, making 76 recommendations to overhaul the industry.
He urged the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the corporate watchdog, to consider pursuing criminal action against the banks for dishonest conduct, a charge that carries financial penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment for implicated individuals.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said, the banks were at the start of the “road back” to win the trust of the public, but refused to apologise for repeatedly voting against the commission.
“It is up to those financial institutions to ensure that the culture changes, that the misconduct doesn’t occur again and that the performance is in the best interest of the consumers,” Frydenberg said.
“We are the ones who announced yesterday that we are taking action on all 76 recommendations. We are the ones who put in place important reforms and we are the ones who are going to offer banking consumers a compensation scheme of a last resort,” he added.
Commissioner Hayne was particularly critical of the National Australia Bank (NAB), saying, he had little faith in the leadership’s ability to institute necessary cultural change.
Chris Bowen, the ALP’s treasury spokesperson, said that, committing to all 76 of Hayne’s recommendations was the minimum required action, offering his party’s support to fast-track the reforms through the law-making process.– NNN-XINHUA
