Banking sector CEO’s arrive at the Senate hearings.

Dear reader. Sometime we as the general public tend to get flummoxed by the intricacy of process and procedure in modern professional life. For instance, some of you I suspect, (though you are loathe to admit it), may have been “at sea’,when a learned art critic utilises in full measure ‘Art Speak’ to describe a particular work. Or in other instances hearing a member of the legal profession, perhaps an expert on contracts describe the legal machinations of a particular case. It’s very easy to baffled by the sludge of ‘legal speak, art speak’, ‘planning speak’ and in some cases ‘plain old english speak’. That’s why it’s so important to bear witness to the Senate banking enquiry.

Banking. Respectability and trust.

Over the past few days we’ve heard some very compelling justification from leaders in the banking sector. Quite a lot of the justification could be described as being defensive. That seems fair, because unbeknown to the highly regarded, principled senior executives of our major banks, some scallywags have been doing their directors a dis-service by indulging in unprofessional behaviour. The big bank executives are at pains to tell us that these miscreants are acting out of character with the upstanding principles of modern banking. They insist that the banks, left to their own devices without an enquiry are on top of the job. And they’re quite clear about it. They’re really sincere about doing something about the rogue executives on their payroll. And they’ve used nice banking words that ‘we’, the public can understand. Just a bit of corporate speak to soften the blow, as in ‘moving forward’, ‘outcomes’, and ‘best professional practice’.

Politicians pretending to be bankers.

However the problem is they’ve done nothing to ensure that those who’ve sent people to the wall, screwed them to death, lied, forged and stolen funds they were not entitled to, have received anything other than a slap on the wrist. Like ol Father Risdale, they’re misdemeanors which have been buried within the corporation. ‘Moved on’. Indeed some of the practices have been so criminal you’d wonder how any of that behaviour could be justified, and why aren’t those banks and the people who made these disgraceful acts not in jail? Well, we suppose it’s image. And the simple truth is that none of the heads of the banks’ can actually identify any of the singular cases of absolute bastardry and say, “ I’m sorry, this is egregiously bad behaviour, there must be something very wrong with the culture within our institutions’.

Instead, we get ‘Pell’s testimony’, ‘I see nothing, hear nothing and it’s quite a surprise’.

A good enquiry begins with a good cup of tea

We deserve better than this, but sadly suspect we wont. It’s comforting to know that the Financial Services Minister is on the case. No Royal Commission, no enquiry, but a Banking Tribunal. Perhaps with all the powers of a Clean Energy Commission, (or wait for it), a Marriage Plebiscite. But with a bit of nuance that’ll keep the ‘little people’ in their place. A bit like Vcat.

‘We’, the public know that the banks, with their army of highly paid corporate lawyers will destroy those foolish enough to go to tribunal.  Kelly O’Dwyer says a tribunal is a good alternative to the court system. “What we’re saying is that’s not always the best mechanism to deal with these complaints, they can be dealt with in a very timely manner, through the right mechanism where they can get their matter heard and examined independently and potentially have access to compensation.”

And you know what that means in plain speak. The banks are telling you the public, (and we agree with them), that as big corporations, big banks now run this country. YOU, the ‘little people’ can just go get fucked!