On Thursday, 14 May 2026 I spoke in Parliament about the revolving door between politics and the banking lobby, and called for the major parties to commit to taxing the big banks properly.
You can read my full speech below, or in the official Parliamentary record of proceedings (Hansard) here.
I need to very quickly correct the record around a speech I made a few weeks ago regarding the absolute capture of both major parties by the banking lobby. I said that former Labor premier Anna Bligh was the head of the Australian Banking Association, the peak lobby for banks in Australia. She had apparently already retired from the role by then so I correct the record in that respect. Never fear, she has been replaced by none other than—drum roll!— former Liberal minister Simon Birmingham. That is the way it works. The revolving door is spinning as freely as it ever has. If you want to catch up with former premier Bligh, she is going to be speaking at the Property Council’s annual Property Congress later this year. The developer lobby is still stitched up well.
Both of the major parties are working for the banks. It is exactly why they are not working for regular people. We are all feeling the pinch, but what does that actually look like? Here is a question: who loves inflation and who loves rate rises? It is not regular people, it is the big banks. Has everyone received an email from their banks recently about how they just have to raise interest rates on your mortgage thanks to latest decision of the RBA? The truth of it is they are simply ripping you off. These banks made $43 billion in profit last year, which has only been helped by padding out interest rate rises. The big four banks make almost $229,000 profit off the average mortgage holder’s home. In the first year of a mortgage that is an average of $214 every week.
Who loves the housing crisis? It is not regular people; it is the big banks. In Brisbane, house prices have jumped 20 per cent in just the last year. Higher mortgages mean higher profits for banks. Federal Labor’s 5% Deposit Scheme has led directly to inflated prices and bigger loans for houses at the lower end of the market. It is projected to funnel an extra $24 billion to the banks in interest over the first five years, so they win and regular people lose.
As a punter in Queensland, everything that makes your life harder means bigger profits for the banks: the housing crisis, interest rates, rising debt. Remember the GFC? There was a $120 billion taxpayer bailout. What an incredible reward for basically cooking the economy and driving it to collapse. The banks thrive on your misery and the politicians let them do it because they work for them given the donations and the jobs after politics that are on offer.
If either of the major parties wants to prove they are not on the big banks’ payroll then here is a simple suggestion: tax the big banks properly. Take some of the profits they are currently paying out to their CEOs—$24 million to the Macquarie CEO last year—and use it to help ordinary people, to fund housing, to fund health care. If you are really working for the people and not the banks then show it in your decisions