Banks order the Member for Goldman Sachs, Mal Turnbull to knock up an inquiry for which they will provide the terms of reference

30 November 2017: KAP Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter today applauded the Turnbull Government’s endorsement of a Royal Commission into the banks, but warns that whilst this battle is won, the war will continue should the Government opt to uphold a 12 month review period and construct the review board from those within the finance industry.

Mr Katter, who was the first Member of Parliament to call for a Royal Commission into the banks in May 2015 and who introduced legislation in the Parliament earlier this year, labelled today’s announcement as ‘a great victory of the people of Australia’.

“This is a great victory for the ordinary Australians. Today my fellow Australians we have won. We have proved that we can win. The Government has been resistant almost to a point of bringing down their own Government against having a Royal Commission into the banks.

“Resistant to a point where the people had a great stroke of luck and the Liberal Party was one down in the Parliament and since they were one vote down, we could cease control of the Parliament and get through the Royal Commission into the banks.

“But the victory lies with those people that did not cop if from the banks but stood up and fought and fought and fought, and with the meagre resources they had they went into the courts and got slaughtered, constantly coming to people like myself and the crossbench –  together were able to get the victory today”

Katter pushes to have social jurist Tim Costello on the board of Turnbull’s proposed bank inquiry, ordered by the banks

“I had the very great honour of having drafted the legislation in conjunction with George Christensen; just two ordinary Australians. The leader of the Government is a banker and unfortunately for him, from Goldman Sachs whose history is checkered.

“This is where the second ball game arises. The Government only acted at the request of the banks. They ignored the majority of the Parliament, they ignored the majority (I suspect) of their own Party and they most certainly treated with contempt the view of the people of Australia. They only acted when they got their writing instructions from the banks and that is a terrible indictment of the Government.”

Mr Katter said that the substance behind the Royal Commission will come down to the composition of terms of reference of the inquiry and said that appointments to the Commission should be approved by the Parliament.

“We put in our legislation, that there will be three judges and three people from the community. We don’t want Caesar judging Caesar. We don’t want just anyone from the financial sector. On our list of names, we suggested Oliver Yates who has a banking background but has proved again and again what he thinks is the right thing and not just what the banks say is the right thing to do. These are the sort of people the people of Australia would trust to do the right thing.

“To my fellow Australians I say this; you have risen up, not given in and fought, you never gave up and you never gave in. You kept out there fighting and fighting. But I warn you, the man from Goldman Sachs is not going to be giving you the inquiry that you want.”