E&OE TRANSCRIPT
SUBJECTS: Mortgage rate rises; savings rates; Senator Katy Gallagher; Fight MND Big Freeze.
SARAH ABO, HOST: Welcome back. Well, it hasn't taken long, but all four of Australia's major banks have now officially passed on the RBA's latest interest rate hike to thousands of already struggling homeowners. But it's a different story when it comes to savings accounts. Many of our biggest banks failing to pass on the higher rates to savers. Joining us to discuss today's headlines is Minister for Government Services and the NDIS, Bill Shorten in Canberra, and Neil Mitchell from 3AW in Melbourne. Thanks so much for your time this morning, guys. Now Bill, does the ACCC need to come down hard on the banks dudding customers like this? I mean, how do they keep getting away with it
BILL SHORTEN, MINISTER FO RTHE NDIS AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES: Well, I hope so. Jim Chalmers has asked the ACCC, the competition watchdog, in January, to start checking this problem out. But when you just think about it, the fact of the matter is there's been 12 rate increases and yet Westpac apparently has only passed on 1.1% improvement in the interest rate they offer savings accounts. I'd rather the interest rates weren't going up for mortgage holders, but I think the banks are guilty of greedflation here. The banks are absolutely making amazing profits. So, I think there are - you know, there's a lot of fuss made last week about minimum wage workers getting a modest pay rise, but the banks are just using the general inflationary environment and home interest rates to make massive profits. So, I think they're guilty of greedflation.
ABO: How do you get around something like this, Neil? I mean, you can't make billions of dollars in profits and then not pass on a couple of percentage points to savers, surely.
NEIL MITCHELL, 3AW: No. They made 16 billion profit first six months this year, the four of them. How do you get around it? You shop around and you heavy – you know, one of the things I really can't understand is how the banks can screw their existing customers. So, you know, you can go to the bank and get a better deal, but you're an existing customer, you don't get a good deal. You've got to ring them up and threaten them. That's an absurd way to go about business. It's just absurd.
ABO: Well, it's also heartless. I mean, so many Australians are suffering right now. Just do your bit. It's not that hard. $16 billion in profit. I mean, it's eye watering.
MITCHELL: Well, they got enough support during the pandemic, didn't they? From government. They should pay it back.
ABO: It's just absurd.
SHORTEN: Short memory with the banks when they're doing it tough, they tell you. But when we're doing it tough, they haven't got our phone number.
ABO: They look the other way. Exactly. All right. Well, it's D-Day for Katy Gallagher in Canberra today. The Finance Minister set to face a grilling in the Senate over what she knew about Brittany Higgins assault allegations and when she knew it. Bill, Katy Gallagher has admitted she knew about the allegation before it was made public. That's after she told Senate estimates no one had any knowledge. So, she did mislead parliament here.
SHORTEN: Well, first of all, Katy is doing an outstanding job as Finance Minister.
ABO: No one's contesting that, though, Bill. No one's contesting the job she's doing. But she misled Parliament, and she shouldn't have.
SHORTEN: I'm just going to - I'm answering your question, but I'm just going to make a couple of points about Katy. And one of the reasons why she does an awesome job is because she's got such integrity and respect amongst the whole Labor team. In terms of what Senator Reynolds is complaining about in the parliament, Katy Gallagher was in opposition. She was asking tough questions of Senator Reynolds on a particular matter. And then Senator Reynolds has decided to say that she was misleading the parliament. Senator Gallagher said she wasn't. And we in the Labor team have got a lot of support for Senator Gallagher. Full stop.
MITCHELL: But, but Bill, how is she not misleading the parliament or the committee? She said that that nobody knew anything, but she did. How is that not misleading?
SHORTEN: Well, I think you're going to find that the - without me getting into every entrail of every crossed T and dotted I, the point is that Senator Reynolds was saying that Senator Gallagher had weaponised this matter, that she was aware of everything for weeks in advance. And Senator Gallagher has said she wasn’t, and she was answering. Senator Reynolds question. The specific thing that Reynolds was putting to it wasn't true, according to Senator Gallagher, and she just stood her ground.
ABO: You've got a vulnerable woman at the centre of all of this, and it has been weaponised by both sides. I mean, that's a fact.
MITCHELL: That’s sad, that’s sad. Hey, there’s another angle to this, Bill. You were a good friend of the late Kimberley Kitching. She supposedly told a number of people about this. When did you find out about it?
SHORTEN: Find out about what, this altercation in the Senate?
MITCHELL: The alleged rape. The alleged incident.
SHORTEN: No, no, no.
MITCHELL: When did you find out?
SHORTEN: I didn't know about the matter at the time that Senator Reynolds knew about it. And to be honest, I hadn't heard a lot of rumours. In terms of Senator Kitching. Senator Reynolds didn't treat Senator Kitching well at all. But Senator Kitchen is no longer with us, so there's not much more I'm going to add to that. I've said all I'm going to say about Senator Kitching. She was a dear friend.
MITCHELL: I just want to know when you found out. Just wanted to know when you found out about it.
SHORTEN: I don't remember when I found out, but I know it was much later in the piece than some of the others.
ABO: I guess, Neil, the issue at hand here is that the public is losing faith with the government. I mean, you look at the two parties and you're both weaponising the issue, whatever it might be. This doesn't really instil much confidence in the public, does it?
MITCHELL: No, and we're going to improve parliamentary standards. If this is the way we go about politics when we've got such an allegation, it's just awful from both sides. I agree with you. It's obscene.
ABO: Mm.
SHORTEN: Oh…
ABO: All right. Well, let's move on. Let's move on now. Go on.
SHORTEN: I don't accept that Labor had weaponised it and the manner in which you're saying there, but I do agree that the general debate is very unedifying and there is, as you said, Sarah, people at the centre of this, including Brittany Higgins and all of this stuff is very difficult, I'm sure, for people to hear.
ABO: Well, I think we can all agree it's ugly, it's murky, and it needs to be sorted out pretty much as soon as possible so we're no longer talk about it. All right. The ninth edition of the Big Freeze at the G has become the most successful yet with Neale Danaher's fight MND raising more than $2 million. Bill. It's such a good cause. I'd love to see everyone getting involved. We just saw Eric Bana there take the plunge. It's a lot of fun and all to help again raise awareness.
SHORTEN: Yeah. I was lucky enough to be at the game – oh, sorry, Neil.
MITCHELL: Sorry. No, sorry. You go ahead, Bill.
ABO: Oh, wow.
SHORTEN: Outbreak of politeness.
MITCHELL: Polite today, I'm being polite.
ABO: This is rare, I’m enjoying it.
SHORTEN: Well, the Dees did beat us, your team beat my team by four points. The MND, Fight. MND is a great day. I was lucky enough to be there. MND is a beast of a disease. We heard from a young man whose father was diagnosed with it and died ten months later. This Fight MND is about the whole of the country getting behind funding research. As NDIS Minister, we support people with MND who have the diagnosis. I met some really strong and brave people who are on the NDIS, who have MND and their marvellous families and carers. So, I got a lot out of yesterday other than of course the four points for Collingwood.
ABO: All right, Neil, we'll give you 30s to gloat. Off you go.
MITCHELL: No, I'm not going to gloat.
ABO: Run out of time.
MITCHELL: It was a good win. But look, it was. a great day for Neale Daniher.
SHORTEN: The non-verbals are sorted.
MITCHELL: Neale Daniher is a hero. No other way of putting his a gentle, decent, down to earth country bloke. And we all love him. And what he's done is superb. Every year we look and say, Is this his last year? And he keeps going. May keep going a lot longer.
ABO: I know.
SHORTEN: Hear, hear
ABO: It's absolutely incredible, isn't it? So inspiring. And I love the way everyone gets around it. All right. Thanks so much for your time, Bill and Neil, as always.