Senator Deborah O’Neill has joined what she has called a “groundswell of Parliamentary colleagues” in calling for a Royal Commission into the banks, after research by the Parliamentary Library found there was a 60 per cent increase in complaints to the financial ombudsman service over the past seven years.
The Parliamentary research undertaken by Labor, found that in 2008- 9, there were 19,107 complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service, but by 2014-15, this had risen to 31,895, a 60 per cent increase. The study also found a 145 per cent increase in complaints about credit cards. Sen O’Neill said she was disappointed, but not surprised, by the statistics revealed in the Labor Party commissioned report. Sen O’Neill has been chair and deputy chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services (PJCC&FS) since 2012.
In that time, the committee has been presented with a string of evidence of unethical behaviour within the banking and fi nancial services sector, notably Trio Capital and Storm Financial. “Labor senators tabled a dissenting report following the committee’s recent inquiry into the impairment of loans,” Sen O’Neill said. “At the start of May 2016, in that dissenting report, Labor formally recommended a Royal Commission into the banks,” she said. “We believe only a Royal Commission will be able to adequately investigate the scourge of unethical behaviour and toxic culture reported as existing in our banking and fi nancial sector. “Everybody knows someone who has had an unacceptable experience with a bank or fi nancial institution. “It’s time for the power and capacity of a Royal Commission to get to the bottom of this rising tide of complaints about Australian’s interactions with their banks,” she said.
Media release, Aug 23, 2016 Rhys Zorro, offi ce of Deborah O’Neill