Kelly O'Dwyer won't admit govt 'wrong' on banks

LIBERAL MP Kelly O’Dwyer has refused to accept the federal government should have agreed earlier to a probe into Australia’s banks, despite saying she’s appalled by revelations of banking behaviour at the royal commission.

Ms O’Dwyer’s comments came after a tense interview with Barrie Cassidy on ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, where she was asked to defend the government’s decision to back away from a banking royal commission.

Ms O’Dwyer described the idea of a royal commission as a talkfest five months ago, claiming it would “kick the can down the road” for a number of years.

Now, she admits to be being appalled by a number of the issues that have been aired.

Senior executives from both the Commonwealth Bank and AMP were questioned at the royal commission last week where it was discovered Australia’s largest bank, Commonwealth Bank, had charged more fees for no service than any other financial services company in the country.

Commonwealth Bank continued to slap fees on to dead customers for advice it wasn’t providing, the problem was noted as, “possible warning to adviser”.

One adviser knew a client had died in 2004, but the adviser service fees were still being charged a decade later, a 2015 document for CBA’s Count Financial business shows.

“Were you wrong to delay it for as long as you did? You haven’t said whether you were wrong or right to delay it,” Mr Cassidy probed.”

Ms O’Dwyer’s interview was described as a “train wreck” after the Financial Services Minister deflected the question over the government’s decision eight times, instead talking up the coalition’s efforts to boost the standards for financial advisers and increase the penalties for misconduct.

For 18 months the federal government opposed Bill Shorten’s proposal to investigate the banks.

“The government has been very alive to the problems in the financial services industry and we have been acting from the get-go,” she said.

O’Dwyer: I’ve answered your question.

Cassidy: No you haven’t.

O’Dwyer: I have answered your question.

Cassidy: You haven’t said whether you were wrong or right to delay it.

O’Dwyer: I’ve said we’ve established it. We have in fact established it.

Cassidy: You have established it, but it took a long time coming. Were you wrong?

O’Dwyer: Well let me put it to you this way. We would not have done all those other things that we would otherwise have done to address these actions.

Labor hit back, saying anyone watching Ms O’Dwyer’s performance would conclude the government is from another planet.

“They’ve learnt absolutely nothing from all of the scandalous revelations that we’ve heard over the last little while at the royal commission,” the party’s finance spokesman Jim Chalmers told ABC TV.

“They still can’t bring themselves to say that they were wrong to run a protection racket against that royal commission for so long.”

Earlier, former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce admitted he was wrong in standing against a royal commission, just days before the head of AMP quit. The commission had heard the wealth manager had lied to regulators and charged customers fees without providing the specified service.

Treasurer Scott Morrison on Friday announced tough new penalties for shonky bankers and corporate criminals, with individuals found guilty of misconduct in the finance sector to face up to 10 years behind bars.

Corporations could be fined up to 10 per cent of their turnover.

Crossbench senator Derryn Hinch tweeted his reaction to Minister O’Dywer’s refusal to accept the government should have acted sooner.

“The words “we were wrong” obviously not in O’Dwyer lexicon. (Barry) Cassidy 100, Minister nil,” he said.

Government frontbencher Ken Wyatt said the minister had made decisions based on the information and evidence she had on hand at the time.

“But the government has certainly stepped forward and taken the decision to have the royal commission,” he told Sky News.

“That has certainly thrown up a number of issues for which I have seen the Treasurer Scott Morrison make some very strong comments about the behaviour of individuals within the financial sector.”

- Additional reporting by AAP

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