Shorten calls for banking compo

OPPOSITION Leader Bill Shorten will today call for the banking royal commission to be extended and for victims to potentially be paid compensation, as Financial Services Minister Kelly O’Dwyer blasted calls for banks to be excluded from proposed company tax cuts as “morality tax”.

In a letter sent the Prime Minister’s Office last night, Mr Shorten said the commission had already heard “shocking and shameful evidence about systemic wrongdoing and a culture of cover- up in the banking industry”.

“It is time the Government gave serious consideration to a compensation scheme for the victims of proven wrongdoing,” he said.

Labor is yet to detail who would pay the compensation bill, but similar schemes have had industry and government contributions.

Mr Shorten also said the commission should be given more time and resources if needed to continue its work.

“You cannot use the original time frame as an excuse to cover up further revelations of wrongdoing,” Mr Shorten said.

Earlier in the day, Ms O’Dwyer admitted banks had a lot to do to rebuild trust with the Australian people, after shocking practices were revealed at the commission last week.

“I think the banks themselves have got a lot of reparation that they need to do in order to build trust of the Australian people,” she said.

But she said it was “conflating two issues which should not be conflated” to use the commission findings to carve the banking sector out of receiving the proposed company tax cuts.