The Gold Coast Bulletin

Senator calls for people to share bank horror stories

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LIKE most Australian­s, I’ve been astonished by the banking royal commission. The stories of greed and corruption that the financial services sector has engaged in turned my stomach.

Like the harrowing story of a young disabled man who was badgered into buying life insurance, and then mocked by salesmen when he tried desperatel­y to cancel it over two years.

Or the financial planners who continued to charge fees to dead people, knowing they had passed away years, and sometimes decades, ago.

Closer to home, I have met with subcontrac­tors dismayed to see banks continuing to lend to failed business owners, after they’ve collapsed their company and left subbies out of pocket.

This is just the surface. More than 9000 people made submission­s to the commission about the appalling treatment they received at the hands of the banks.

But only 27 have had the chance to tell their stories in front of the commission. It’s clear that there is still more to be uncovered from the royal commission. So why are Scott Morrison and his Gold Coast LNP MPs refusing to extend it?

Scott Morrison fought tooth and nail against a royal commission into the banks. He said Labor’s call for a royal commission was a “populist whinge”.

It’s clear that we’ve only scratched the surface of this problem. We need more time and more victims need to be given the opportunit­y to tell their stories.

That’s why I am hosting a roundtable today to give victims the chance to tell their stories. The Gold Coast, despite being the second-largest city in Queensland, was not visited by the royal commission. But Gold Coasters deserve to have their say.

The meeting is at 11am at the Uniting Church Hall, 23 Short St Southport.

MURRAY WATT LABOR SENATOR

FOR QUEENSLAND

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