Senator Xenophon, along with other crossbenchers, want a number of amendments to the ABCC Bill.

The South Australian wants changes to procurement policies to include requirement for locally produced goods to be used in construction projects.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his Employment Minister Michaelia Cash have both said they would not consider amendments that would change the nature of the legislation.

That would mean Senator Glenn Lazarus' demands for a national anti-corruption body would not be considered.

"I certainly won't vote for [the ABCC] in its current form," Senator Lazarus told ABC Insiders.

"I've always been a campaigner for a national corruption and misconduct watchdog and I think it's a very relevant point.

"I don't think we need to be attacking one particular sector, we need to be covering all misconduct and corruption."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-17/brandis-says-double-dissolution-election-likely/7332898

The question of a Royal Commission into the banking industry is not only about corruption and criminal conduct, it's about our basic democratic rights, says Professor Carl Rhodes.

DEBATES OVER the call for a Royal Commission into the banking industry have brought to the fore the real battle in Australian politics — and it’s not about partisan rivalry.

At stake is whether Australia is committed to being a democracy ruled by the people as represented by government, or a corporatocracy where government is the political arm of big business.

When Tony “open for business” Abbott was running the show it was about the state kowtowing to the market. Remarkably, his successor as prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has moved to a whole new level. Businesses and political interests are now being treated as one and the same. Democracy is at stake.

Australia has suffered a raft of scandals at the hands of its major banks. Headline news is dominated by stories of blatant insurance fraud, high-level rate fixing, and dodgy financial planning. When it’s not downright criminal it is conscience-free profiteering.

ANZ boss Shayne Elliot fears that a royal commission will spook international investors; that they will think that “where there is smoke there is fire”. Given the overwhelming evidence that fires have been raging out of control in the banking sector, such a response beggars belief.

Westpac chimed in with its view that a royal commission could “impact confidence in the economy”. There is a warped logic at play. Why should we avoid holding corporations to account for clear evidence of wrongdoing? Because it’s bad for business.

The scandals reflect a culture in banking and finance that runs on greed and is backed up by blatant disregard for any form of public responsibility.

read more: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/royal-commission-into-banking-debate-reveals-the-sell-off-of-australian-democracy,8892

see also: 

an endless stream of scandals that if exposed would lead to a devastating loss of confidence...

May I remind our Malcolm and our Bill of a certain Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the USA, the founder of what became the Democratic Party:

In anticipation of the 1832 election, Congress, led by Clay, attempted to reauthorize the Second Bank of the United States four years before the expiration of its charter. In keeping with his platform of economic decentralization, Jackson vetoed the renewal of its charter, thereby seemingly putting his chances for reelection in jeopardy. However, Jackson, by portraying himself as the defender of the common man against wealthy bankers, was able to defeat Clay in the election that year. Jackson thoroughly dismantled the bank by the time its charter expired in 1836. Jackson's struggles with Congress were personified in his personal rivalry with Clay, whom Jackson deeply disliked, and who led the opposition (the emerging Whig Party). Jackson's presidency marked the beginning of the ascendancy of the "spoils system" in American politics. Jackson is also known for having signed the Indian Removal Act, which relocated a number of native tribes in the South to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).

History is a bitch. Hubris and sociopathy reign while reshaping Rome ...

Treasurer Scott Morrison has confirmed Australian banks and financial institutions will be responsible for fully funding its own regulatory body in coming years.

• ASIC to receive $127 million from increased bank levy, government
• Extra money to be used for surveillance
• Treasurer warns banks not to pass costs on to customers

Mr Morrison announced this morning that the levy banks already pay will be increased by $121 million and the Federal Government will commit an additional $6 million in taxpayer funds, with the money going to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

But he later confirmed that the banks, super funds and other financial industries will be responsible for ASIC's entire funding within an estimated two years.

"The banks will pay for this increased resource and over the next two years, we will get to full funding of ASIC under a user pays model," he told ABC's 730 program.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-20/treasurer-issues-warning-to-banks-over-asic-levy/7341766

I also heard that the Banks will sponsor ASIC Christmas parties...

The Federal Government has been embarrassed by a procedural bungle in Parliament, after accidentally endorsing a bill amended by Labor, which criticised the Government.

"There has never been a more chaotic Government, there has never been a more chaotic Parliament and there has never been a Leader of the House that has had to endure humiliation from his colleagues on such a regular basis," Mr Burke told Parliament.

"We've only been sitting 10 days, this is not a one-off mistake.

"If the first 10 days are any guide at all, then this is a Government that's not counting up its days, this is a Government in countdown."

Leader of the House Christopher Pyne described the mistake as an "inadvertent error".

"I would make the point that there are several owners of this error, and I am not going to criticise them individually because it's wrong to criticise the people who work for us, the people who are sitting in the chair," Mr Pyne told Parliament.

"There was a series of events that led to this outcome, and it's a pity."

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-12/government-endorses-critical-amendment-in-procedural-bungle/7927260

See toon at top...

A week after a painful and terse interview where she repeatedly avoided questions on delaying the establishment of a royal commission, Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer has finally conceded the Government got it wrong.

The Coalition has faced repeated criticism for opposing the inquiry into the banking and financial sector, in the wake of shocking evidence presented at early hearings.

Testimony at the royal commission has included banks charging dead customers fees for no service, and employees of financial planners impersonating their clients over the phone.

On the ABC's Insiders program last Sunday Ms O'Dwyer was asked around a dozen times whether the Coalition had got it wrong in delaying the inquiry.

Each time, she dodged answering.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-27/banking-royal-commission-kelly-odw...

Read from top, of course... She should resign if there was one ounce of honesty in her glass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=36&v=F-HUhUedI_E

She should resign... Read from top.

Read also: 

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/kelly-odwyer-...

Lawyers for the banking royal commission have recommended the Commonwealth Bank and the National Australia Bank face criminal charges over their treatment of superannuation customers.

• CBA admitted to more than 13,000 breaches of superannuation law
• Michael Hodge QC also recommended that NAB face criminal charges for misleading and deceptive conduct
• ASIC highly likely to take banks to court over fees-for-no-service scandal

In his closing submission on misconduct in the superannuation industry, senior counsel assisting the commission, Michael Hodge QC, said the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) had admitted to more than 13,000 criminal breaches of the superannuation law.

That is because the CBA-owned Colonial First State failed to move 13,000 superannuation members into low fee, no commission accounts known as My Super by the legal deadline of January 1, 2014.

Mr Hodge also recommended to Commissioner Kenneth Hayne QC that NAB face criminal charges for misleading and deceptive conduct because it wrongly charged fees to superannuation customers.

Mr Hodge alleged that NAB's superannuation form, MLC, and its superannuation trustee, Nulis, may have mislead customers under the ASIC Act by failing to tell them they did not need to pay a plan service fee.

Read more

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-25/lawyers-recommend-nab,-cba-face-ch...

Read from top...

She said colleagues found themselves at “a crossroad where they could not choose” which candidate to support in the leadership ballot – with Victorians enduring a particularly rough time because their preselections were threatened.

O’Dwyer validated the account and others like it during a separate interview on the ABC’s 7.30 program. O’Dwyer said she’d had a number of conversations with male and female MPs and it was clear that people were subject to “threats, intimidation and bullying”.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/03/i-will-name-names...

Read from top.

...

The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, said the clear messages from the report were that greed had permeated the financial services culture, and misconduct had “gone to a large degree unpunished”.

“This interim report is a frank and scathing assessment of the culture, conduct and compliance of our financial system,” Frydenberg told reporters in Melbourne on Friday. “Australians expect and deserve better.”

He said was was required was twofold: a culture of enforcement and a culture of compliance.

The head of the lobby group for the banks, the Australian Banking Association, Anna Bligh, did not mince words. “Make no mistake, today is a day of shame for Australia’s banks.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/28/banking-royal-com...

Hypocritical indignity from a political party loving to have parties with the banks. Read from top. GREED and BANKS are interchangeable words.

Federal and state governments will launch the second phase of a taxpayer-funded advertising campaign to combat domestic violence at a national summit in Adelaide on Wednesday.

Scott Morrison last month cancelled the Council of Australian Governments meeting originally scheduled for this week, with the October premiers’ meeting a casualty of the leadership upheaval.

But the national summit on reducing violence against women and their children, scheduled to coincide with that Coag meeting, is proceeding, and the second phase of the national advertising campaign will be launched by the federal minister for women, Kelly O’Dwyer.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/03/kelly-odwyer-to-launch-t...

Most of domestic violence revolves around cash or not enough of it... Why not get the banks to fund the adverts and leave the "taxpayers" alone?

Read from top.

In an SMH article titled: Kelly O'Dwyer must find a delicate balance to win over workers, by Dana McCauley, It appears that if O'Dwyer does not walk on water, it's because of these pesky unions. Yes, workers are annoying for refusing to see that the coalition government "has protected Australian workers" — especially bankers and stockbrokers, in a delicate balance versus the Banking Royal Commission.... I can smell another banking sponsorship of the parliamentarian lady coming on for the next election. Workers can have the crumbs and the empties...

Read from top. 

Federal Minister for Women Kelly O'Dwyer has announced she is quitting politics at the next election.

• Ms O'Dwyer said she was quitting for "very personal" reasons
• She said she was confident her seat would be represented "incredibly well" by a woman
• She joins a string of Liberal women who are departing at this year's election

Ms O'Dwyer has represented the inner-Melbourne electorate of Higgins since 2009, has been a member of Cabinet since 2015, and is also the Minister for Jobs and Industrial Relations.

She will remain a minister until the next election, and holds the seat on a margin of about 8 per cent, fending off a challenge from the Greens at the last election.

"The decisive reasons are very personal," Ms O'Dwyer said at a press conference with Prime Minister Scott Morrison today.

"My two smart and loving children, Olivia and Edward … will reach primary school age during the next parliament.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-19/kelly-odwyer-quitting-federal-par...

Read from top.