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Labor will give a voice to the victims sidelined by Scott Morrison’s failure to extend the Banking Royal Commission.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is today announcing that Shadow Minister for Financial Services Clare O’Neil will travel to cities and towns around Australia that have not been visited by the Royal Commission to hold a series of roundtables with victims.
These roundtables will give victims a crucial opportunity to share their stories and consider options for reform to ensure that the shocking misconduct exposed by the Royal Commission is stamped out.
Labor is committed to working with bank victims the opportunity to be part of this important national conversation.
So far, the Royal Commission has only had time to hear from 27 customers, despite over 9300 customers making written submissions.
All of the hearings of the Commission have been in just three capital cities – regional and rural customers have not had a sufficient chance to have their say in this process.
Misconduct in the financial services sector is a national issue – and Australians across the country deserve their chance to be heard. Unlike the Liberals, Labor will listen to victims.
The Royal Commission’s interim report has highlighted how badly ‘greed’ and ‘the pursuit of short term profit at the expense of basic standards of honesty’ has affected our financial services sector.
Labor now wants victims to have a seat at the table when the Royal Commission considers what reforms are required to clean up this sector.
Scott Morrison doesn’t want to give bank victims a voice. He always has been, and always will be, on the side of the big banks.
He spent 600 days fighting against the Royal Commission, labelling it a ‘populist whinge’ and a ‘reckless distraction’. He voted against the Royal Commission 26 times. And he spent years trying to reward the big banks with a $17 billion tax cut. Now, he’s refusing to extend the Royal Commission – all but guaranteeing victims won’t get a say in responding to the Commission’s recommendations for reform.
Labor called for this Royal Commission, Labor fought for this Royal Commission, Labor will allow victims to have their say, and Labor will work day and night to protect Australian businesses and consumers from this appalling misconduct.

347,000 Australian children are facing a $440 million cut to preschool funding as a result of Scott Morrison’s cuts to preschool, with the program only funded for one more school year.
Unless this cut is reversed, every child now under the age of two will miss out on preschool funding in the year before school. This would be a disaster for Australian children and for our economy.
Scott Morrison’s cuts amount to the equivalent of $1,200 per child every year – a cut that will leave parents out of pocket or force states and community kindies to cut back hours.
In 2009, Federal Labor introduced Universal Access to Preschool for all four year olds, so Australian children could access 15 hours per week of quality preschool education in the year before school.
This was in recognition of the importance of early education – 90% of a child’s brain development occurs before they are five, and children who access preschool have been shown to achieve better school results in later years.
Unfortunately the Liberals continue to treat early education as a political football – leaving parents with uncertainty about whether they will be left out of pocket or whether their child will miss out.
Since the first agreement was signed by Labor in 2008, preschool enrolment has increased from 77% to up to 97% in some states.
However, this is all in jeopardy if Morrison doesn’t reverse his cuts and extend funding for preschool in his next Budget update – less than two months away.
When a student starts behind, they are unlikely to catch up – it’s likely they will not meet minimum NAPLAN standards in Years 3, 5 and 7.
For a country like Australia, this is just not good enough. By refusing to commit to ongoing funding for preschool, Mr Morrison is putting our children’s futures at risk.
He is also making it extremely difficult for providers to plan ahead and build a solid workforce.
This funding cut comes on the back of Morrison’s $14 billion cuts to public schools, his cuts to Universities and cuts to TAFE. These cuts show he just doesn’t understand the importance of education.
He’s spent years arguing for a tax cut for the banks, but Morrison is happy to leave funding for our youngest minds in jeopardy.
Labor will fight for early education and we will fight for better schools because unlike the Liberals, we know that education is an investment in a better future for our kids and our nation’s economy.

Yesterday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a ‘Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 C’.
The report contained a very clear message: if we don’t quit coal, we are screwed.
So with a coal-loving Prime Minister and a coal-conflicted Labor leader, it’s time to mobilise for a war against coal and a war against climate change. The Greens are the only party taking this threat seriously.
Yesterday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a ‘Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 C’.
The report contained a very clear message: if we don’t quit coal, we are screwed.
So with a coal-loving Prime Minister and a coal-conflicted Labor leader, it’s time to mobilise for a war against coal and a war against climate change. The Greens are the only party taking this threat seriously.
2030 is the new deadline. According to the report, we may hit 1.5 degrees as early as 2030, which could trigger multi-metre sea-level rises.
We don’t just need to make the next election about climate change–we need to make every moment about climate change. We need to hit the emergency button.
Global emissions need to peak in 2020. But a few weeks ago, we found out that Australia’s pollution is STILL rising. Business as usual under Liberal and Labor is a death sentence.
We need to make every moment about climate change. Our leaders need to be held to account. The evidence is overwhelming, but the action has been underwhelming.
Liberal and Labor are paralysed by their reliance on the donations of fossil fuel companies.