As a clearly panicked Scott Morrison announced on Friday a stream of eye-watering new penalties for serious misconduct by banks and financial services firms, it’s instructive to look back at his zealous efforts over two years to protect the banks from a royal commission currently uncovering just that sort of misbehaviour.

The Treasurer and his colleague, Revenue and Financial Services Minister Kelly O’Dwyer, are falling over themselves to claim the new jail-time threats and bank-busting fines are just business as usual by responsible stewards of the national interest.

Treasurer Scott Morrison was the loudest opponent of a royal commission into the banks. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Why, they insisted, they’ve been working on the new regime of penalties since examining the findings of an ASIC enforcement task force inquiry established way back in November 2016.

The idea that it is mere coincidence that the new penalties - including fines up to $210 million or 10 per cent of a bank’s annual turn-over - are being announced right now is about as believable as the excruciating line in Muriel’s Wedding from the guilty and embarrassed husband: “Deirdre Chambers! What a coincidence!”