Bank customers lose
TERRY McCrann’s op-ed ‘Better bet than roll of the dice’ (CP, 15/11) describes how the Banking Royal Commissioner ‘slammed the two corporate regulators ASIC and APRA’.
The reason: ‘Doing deals with wayward banks instead of taking them to court.’
But McCrann points out that deals are often more effective than the legal option which ‘tends to be a crap-shoot’. Pragmatic, but a shocking indictment of the regulatory and court systems.
There are three winners: lawyers charging massive fees, highly-paid bank executives who authorise payment of fines that are trivial compared with their colossal profits and the numerous ineffective regulator bureaucrats that keep their jobs.
The banks get a slap over the wrist with a wet bus ticket. We bank customers all lose.
Hopefully the commissioner will recommend far more effective solutions than the current travesty and our government will ignore the inevitable bank lobbyists pleading for more soft-soaping. Peter Senior, Redlynch joined Rio Tinto and BHP in calling for a price on carbon (ie carbon tax or emissions trading scheme) will you argue they are distorting the facts for their own benefit as you claim of climate scientists?
It is clear that even the largest fossil fuel corporation in Australia accepts global warming climate science and believes that the Federal Government is not doing enough to respond to this climate emergency.
Happy cognitive dissonance. Geoff Holland, Machans Beach 2000: The only known oil painting of Winnie the Pooh done by illustrator Ernest Howard Shepard is sold at auction to a Canadian museum for $C243,000. 2006: Pakistan says it has successfully test-fired a new version of its nuclearcapable medium-range missile. 2007: North and South Korea agree to launch cross-border rail service for the first time in more than half a century. 2011: US President Barack Obama says he will send military aircraft and up to 2500 Marines to Northern Australia for a training hub to help allies and protect American interests across Asia. 2014: The Islamic State terrorist group executes US aid worker Peter Kassig (above). 2016: Two French tourists aged in their 70s die from heart attacks after reportedly being stung by tiny but toxic jellyfish north of Cairns.