Senator Matthew Canavan, Darren Chester MP and Senator Gerard Rennick announced that the first hearing of the Senate Inquiry into Regional and Rural bank closures will be held in Sale, Victoria on 2 March. Source: Timberbiz
The Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee will be requesting that both Westpac and the National Australia Bank appear at the public hearing in Sale.
Liberal and Nationals MPs have welcomed Westpac’s commitment to pause some regional bank closures while the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee’s inquiry into regional bank closures is ongoing.
Since September 2022 there have been 92 bank branches either closed or slated for closure and last week the Regional and Rural Affairs and Transport Committee called for banks to put a halt on closures while an inquiry into regional banking closures was undertaken.
The announcement from Westpac will mean that bank branches at Denmark in WA, Gatton, Cloncurry, Tully, and Ingham in QLD, Robinvale and Sale in Victoria and Kingston SE (BankSA) in SA will remain open.
“All I am asking is that the banks listen to the voices of the community before they rip out essential services. The Commonwealth Bank has already done the right thing and deferred closures while communities have their say to the Senate inquiry. The other banks should do the same.
“Westpac announced last week that it would close its branch in Sale on 19 May. The National Australia Bank has already closed a branch in the nearby town of Maffra,” Senator Canavan said.
When a bank branch closes, particularly in a regional location, the impacts will spread throughout the community. The customers who are required to travel distances to access their bank will incur additional cost-of-living increases with petrol, Darren Chester said in Parliament last week.
“Closing branches is a lazy option and the banks should work with us to develop solutions that work for small businesses and the more vulnerable members of our community.
“I welcome the Senate committee in Sale where they will hear firsthand how both Westpac’s closure in Sale and National Australia Bank’s closure in Maffra will affect our community,” he said.
This hearing is the first of numerous hearings planned to impacted communities to help highlight the concerns of these towns that have lost or are soon to lose their last remaining bank branch.
Senator Rennick said when taxpayers are essentially underwriting bank’s profits because they’re considered too big to fail, banks in turn have a social licence to maintain essential banking services for customers.
“Considering much of Australia’s wealth comes from the regions, whose role is it to provide essential services to those rural and regional communities?” Senator Rennick said.
“There needs to be at least one bank in town and whether that is a government-backed bank is something to be discussed.”
Submissions to the inquiry are open until 31 March 2023. Further information, including how to make a submission, can be found on the Rural and Regional Affairs Committee website here.
