Labor's Plan For Better Banking Text Email Print Labor's Plan For Better Banking Community concern is mounting about the services provided to the Australian community by the banking sector. Consumers are tired of seeing record bank profits year after year while fees and charges rise and access to banking services declines. For too long the Howard government has ignored these concerns, preferring to talk evasively about how competition will always magically produce a better deal for consumers. Australians have found out the hard way how false that proposition was.
Labor is very concerned about the affordability of and access to banking services in Australia.
We have campaigned on this issue as a mainstay of our commitment to social justice. Labor believes that banking is an essential service and that banks do have social obligations that are broader than other commercial organisations. The licensing of banks imposes responsibilities as well as privileges, which go beyond just being good corporate citizens. This is why Labor commissioned a study through the Chifley Research Centre into financial services and social exclusion. That study, conducted by the Financial Services Consumer Policy Centre at the University of New South Wales, came up with a number of recommendations to combat financial exclusion.