Russell Broadbent here, your Member for Monash.
In less than six years, almost a quarter of retail bank branches across the electorate of Monash, my electorate, have closed, and a third of our ATM services have shut down!
These closures are shocking, even more so when you consider that Monash is home to the fastest growing towns in the nation.
In regional areas such as ours, cash is absolutely essential.
It’s a lifeline in times of crisis – we’ve all experienced power outages and internet crashes in the past year, and many businesses were unable to operate unless customers used cash – some were closed for days on end.
Yet bank services continue to shut down in regional areas, despite persistent protests from communities urging them to remain open.
A recent report by the Senate’s Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee recommended that the Australian Government adopt a policy recognising that access to financial services is an essential service.
To this end, the Committee said the government should commit to guaranteeing reasonable access to cash and financial services for all Australians.
Seems reasonable to me – more than reasonable.
The Committee went even further to recommend that the government develop a mandatory Banking Code of Conduct or Customer Service Code, which would involve a regulator with expertise in consumer protection weighing in on our regional bank closures.
Banks would be penalised if they failed to comply.
I urge the ACCC to consider the impact these closures are having on vulnerable communities – communities that are often hit the hardest – retirees, small businesses, community groups, regional towns and farmers.
Putting people before profits - It’s the right thing to do.
That’s justice as I see it.
