Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. This bill addresses the issue of fees and charges, how they should be regulated, how they should be listed and what information consumers could have about them, and they are the issues that I am addressing.

Since the ACCC and the government have dropped the ball on looking at and regulating these fees and charges, it has been left to a private law firm to run a class action test case seeking to prove that many of the banks' fees and charges that this bill seeks to regulate are in fact unlawful penalties that may have to be refunded. This case is already proceeding before the courts and involves over 27,000 individuals and businesses, holding 40,000 personal and business accounts, acting against the ANZ, attempting to recoup over $50 million worth of unenforceable penalties that the bank has gouged from consumers.

This bill simply misses the mark. It fails to address the problems in our overly concentrated Australian banking sector, a sector which has now become so highly concentrated and so big that the big four banks are all too big to fail, whereby they require special regulation to protect them from the forces of competition. This bill does little to improve a competitive and sustainable banking system and it fails in its aim to give every Australian 'a fair go'. It fails to address the gouging of small business and consumers by the banks. That is why it is correct that the bill was sent off to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics and that is why the government should support the coalition's call for a root-and-branch review of Australia's financial system.

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