Labor should come clean on its secret banking plan.
A weekend media report [attached] said Labor had done a secret deal with the Australian Bankers Association promising that if elected it would go back on its plan to re-regulate the banks.
The report said the Federal Labor candidate for Kooyong in Melbourne had quit the ALP over the secret deal, saying Labor's policy on banks was "fraudulent".
"Kim Beazley runs around the country threatening banking re-regulation but has a secret plan to do the complete opposite.
"Mr Beazley misleads the Australian public and even misleads Labor's own candidates.
"Mr Beazley should come clean on Labor secret banking plan. Either he is going to re-regulate banking or he isn't.
"This is another example of Labor's policy hypocrisy. Australians deserve to know the truth."
9 July 2001
Media contact: Matthew Abbott, Minister's office 0413 076 213
By GERARD McMANUS.
A FEDERAL ALP candidate has quit the party on the eve of the crucial Aston by-election,
saying Labor's policy on bank closures is "fraudulent".
Boyd Fraser, a second cousin of former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser,
claimed Labor had struck a secret deal with the Australian Bankers' Association
to turn a blind eye to continuing branch closures once it gained office.
"I find that offensive," he said.
Mr Fraser, 45, said he could no longer be the ALP's endorsed candidate for the
seat of Kooyong.
He said he had hoped to put a dent in the Liberal Party stronghold at the coming
federal poll.
But he had become "enormously disillusioned with Labor". He said that with the
Liberal Party, at least "what you see is what you get with bank branches".
"But, in fact, bank branches will continue to close under a Labor Government,"
he said.
Mr Fraser claimed the ALP in Victoria was beholden to big businesses.
"I put a lot of faith in the party, but it hasn't been fulfilled," he said.
"The Labor Party believes it is vital to have the big end of town on its side."
Mr Fraser said the party would not tolerate candidates who wanted to contribute
to the policy debate. "The average Labor candidate just accepts policy from
on high, but I wanted to contribute."
Mr Fraser said financial services spokesman Senator Stephen Conroy was "flying
around the country" claiming Labor was taking a strong stand on banking,
but he knew in his heart that branches would continue to close under a Labor
Government.
"I came under considerable pressure from Stephen Conroy, and I was told to shut
up about this concept," he said.
Last night Senator Conroy said there was no hidden agenda in Labor's bank policy. "We've made it quite clear we are about restoring bank services," he said.
Mr Fraser earlier failed in a bid to persuade the State Government to support
local councils who took on the banks over branch closures.
The City of Kingston has said it will do business only with banks that guarantee
not to close branches within its boundaries.
Mr Fraser said the Labor Party should be standing by the unemployed, the elderly
and the handicapped - those who could not afford computers for internet banking or who still relied on face-to-face banking.
"In England, Lloyds Bank, which has 76,000 employees, has a stated policy that
if it is the last bank branch in any area it will not shut the branch," Mr Fraser
said.
"That is even if the branch is not making a profit. I wanted a Labor policy
that does no more or less than what business does every day - putting the weights
on other businesses to do the right thing."
(C) 2001 Herald and Weekly Times Limited.
Source:SUNDAY HERALD SUN 08/07/2001 P31