No news in bank probe: ScoMo

TREASURER Scott Morrison has shrugged off the instances of misconduct heard by the Banking Royal Commission, saying the government already knew about them.

His comments come as his boss and the man who ordered the probe, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, faces a key anniversary that will test his leadership of the Coalition.

Mr Morrison told a business summit in Sydney that the federal government, which had long been opposed to a royal commission, had already begun tackling misconduct through initiatives such as the banking executive accountability regime (BEAR), the push for open banking and support for rival fintechs.

“What is happening in the royal commission is (issues) are all being raised at the same time and obviously I think that will more directly impact on the public consciousness of these things,” Mr Morrison said yesterday.

“But these were not things that the government was not aware of and that is why we were already taking this strong action.”

Mr Turnbull in November bowed to pressure to spend $75 million on a royal commission into the banks, a move that had been called for by Labor, the Greens, crossbenchers and Liberal and Nationals backbenchers.

Mr Turnbull, who next week faces a Newspoll that is expected to be his 30th in a row with the Coalition trailing Labor, made the decision on the back of allegations from the government’s financial intelligence unit, AUSTRAC, in August that the Commonwealth Bank breached terrorism funding and money laundering laws more than 53,800 times between 2011 and 2015.

Mr Morrison yesterday said the government had also put more resources into the Australian Securities and Investments

CAN YOU IMAGINE IF WE WAITED FOR THE ROYAL COMMISSION TO END? WE WEREN’T WAITING: WE WERE GETTING ON WITH IT SCOTT MORRISON

Commission in order to push the regulator to be greater enforcers of the law.

“Can you imagine if we waited for the royal commission to end?” he said. “We weren’t waiting: we were getting on with it.”

Mr Turnbull meanwhile said he was confident of continued support from his party despite using the factor of 30 Newspoll losses in a row as a key reason for ousting Tony Abbott from the party leadership in September 2015.

Speaking in central Queensland yesterday, Mr Turnbull said he was “very” confident of his colleagues’ support.