2017-05-16
Greens Banking spokesperson, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, says while the Greens will support any inquiry to the specific bank levy legislation, we won’t support a full references Inquiry without seeing the terms of reference.
Senator Whish-Wilson, “It hasn’t taken long for Bill Shorten and Anna Bligh to team up and tag team against the bank levy proposal.
“Let’s make it very clear, based on this government's past form, if these banks don’t pay this levy then it will be the poorest Australians who will have to make up the difference.
“The Greens will side with ordinary Australians over the banks every day.
“The Greens will support a full and exhaustive legislation inquiry into the bank levy but we won’t be supporting Bill Shorten playing politics with this issue and giving bank CEOs extra opportunities to delay, cry poor and tear down the bank levy.
“If we were to support a full references Inquiry into the banking levy we would need it to look at the financial and competitive advantage the banks get from implicit and explicit government guarantees, and it would also need to look at the influence of banking donations on politics," he concluded.
Media Release Treasury