Chief executives face three days of questioning before a new committee formed by Malcolm Turnbull in response to calls for a banking royal commission

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Labor and the Greens are preparing for a showdown with the chief executives of Australia’s biggest banks this week during three days of questioning in Canberra.

Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite has said he will use fresh evidence from whistleblowers that reveals more unethical behaviour in the banking industry relating to the sale of insurance products and financial advice.



Greens MP Adam Bandt says this will be the chance for bank bosses to persuade parliamentarians that a banking royal commission is not needed.

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The heads of Commonwealth Bank (CBA), Westpac, ANZ and the National Australia Bank will appear before the standing committee on economics in Canberra from Tuesday.

The CBA chief executive, Ian Narev, will appear on Tuesday, a week after a shareholder backlash over his $12.3m pay packet.

In March the insurance arm of the CBA was revealed in a joint sitting to have conducted unethical practices, giving impetus to the ALP’s call for a royal commission into the banks.

But the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, maintains there is no need for a royal commission because it would be too costly and slow.

He has instead asked the banks to start appearing annually before a parliamentary committee, which meets for the first time on Tuesday.

Labor and the Greens are critical of the process, saying the hearings will be a sham because each committee member will only have 20 minutes to ask questions of each bank chief.

Thistlethwaite told Guardian Australia the hearings would just be a “show” for the Turnbull government to look like it was getting tough with the banks and holding them to account.

“In reality it’s nothing more than a bit of a charade to try to take some pressure off the government,” he said.

He said scandals and unethical behaviour were still occurring in the banking industry and customers were “still being ripped off,” and he’d be using fresh evidence from whistleblowers to demonstrate that.

“If we’re really going to get to the bottom of what’s occurring in this industry we need a royal commission to thoroughly investigate their activities and to recommend reforms to government,” he said.

Bandt said the banks had been leading the charge against a royal commission by saying they had changed their practices, so this hearing would give them the chance to convince parliamentarians of that.

“I remain sceptical,” he said. “I think a royal commission would have the powers to, not only hear what the CEOs have to say, but find out what’s actually happening behind closed doors, to see if practices have changed in any material way.”

The committee’s chair, Liberal MP David Coleman, said the hearings were important because they would ensure the bank bosses were regularly and permanently accountable to parliament.

“The committee will now have an ongoing review function over the activities of the commercial banks as it has historically with the RBA,” he said.

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“The hearings will provide important, ongoing oversight of the activities of the banks.”

Last week South Australian senator Nick Xenophon slammed the growing trend of major banks and other big companies paying million-dollar bonuses to chief executives for hitting vague performance targets.

The Greens Treasury spokesman, Peter Whish-Wilson, said the Greens would soon be pushing again to rein in executive pay.

The CBA will appear before the committee on Tuesday, ANZ will appear on Wednesday, and NAB and Westpac will appear on Thursday.