Gorman MP Talks on ABC Perth Mornings with Mitsopoulos

NADIA MITSOPOULOS, HOST: I do want to get to your calls, but first I want to go to Patrick Gorman, who's the Federal Member for Perth and Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister. Patrick, thanks for your time. Good morning.

PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Nadia, and good morning to your listeners.

MITSOPOULOS: What did you think when you heard what CBA had done here?

GORMAN: What I thought was, when you're kicking people in the guts a couple of weeks out from Christmas, you're doing the wrong thing. And that's really clear from all of the feedback I've had into my electorate office, what I've heard on the radio, and so much more. It's clear that people think this is the thin end of the wedge, where people just know that if they get away with this, they're going to want to whack more and more fees on people for doing their normal everyday banking. It's not on, and they need to reverse it, and they need to reverse it quickly.

MITSOPOULOS: Have you had people contacting your office complaining?

GORMAN: Yes, I have. I had quite a few regular correspondents. I've had a number of constituents who have been contacting me for a period of time about some closures for ATMs and other things that happened in Bassendean, which was through the Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Bankwest, I've written to the Commonwealth Bank about that. Constituents have contacted me again about this with concern that it is simply charging people a fee to access their own money. It is ridiculous. And I think what people know is that Commonwealth Bank, last financial year, made some $9.48 billion - that's $9,401 million - of profit off of their business serving Australians. They're clearly doing okay. They shouldn't be whacking a $3 fee on people just to get their own cash, and giving people on the a month notice, it's very disruptive.

MITSOPOULOS: And you don't accept the argument from CBA that this is a staff-assisted service and therefore it costs money?

GORMAN: When you go and have a staff-assisted service of purchasing a coffee, you don't have to pay a $3 fee on top of getting your coffee. We have in-customer services for all sorts of things. I don't know why Commonwealth Bank want to push their customers out the door. I think it's nice that people want to go into a branch see someone. I'm a bit old school. I go into a bank branch to do some of my banking. It's totally ridiculous that you'd be charging people a fee just for what is one of the most long-standing and most basic banking services.

MITSOPOULOS: Realistically, though, Patrick Gorman, when you go into a bank, are you actually withdrawing cash?

GORMAN: I still withdraw cash. I use less than I used to, but I still withdraw cash because sometimes the ATM - sometimes I do go and do it over the counter, because I want to have a whole pile of $5 notes for those school fetes and other things that I attend as a local Member of Parliament. So, yeah, I do do that from time to time. And I think again, this is the most basic of banking services. I mean, I remember when I had my first transaction account as a kid, you'd go in, you'd hand over your little passbook, you'd put your money in, or withdraw your money out. It's the most basic thing that people have been doing with their banks for decades and decades. To slap a fee on it and give people only a month's notice, I think is really not good corporate citizenship. And I think Western Australians, particularly, having experience of how Commonwealth Bank have managed Bankwest and the closures that we saw earlier this year, I think there would be a lot of people really questioning how Commonwealth Bank are treating Western Australians, in particular.

MITSOPOULOS: Patrick Gorman is my guest this morning. He's the Federal Member for Perth and Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, and I will get back to your calls on this in just a moment - 1300 222 720 is the number. Patrick, you mentioned that profit of $9.48 billion in the 23-24 financial year. The CBA will argue that's actually a 6% decrease from the previous years. And, like it or not, they do have to worry about their shareholders.

GORMAN: That's completely fine. They can worry about their shareholders, but I think also they need to remember that a lot of their shareholders are also their customers, and being good to your customers is also good business. I think there'd be a lot of small business owners in Western Australia listening to them thinking that, 'oh, if you've only had a 6% reduction and you're doing that well,' I don't think there'll be a lot of sympathy for them. And I don't think this is the path forward.

MITSOPOULOS: Is there anything the Government can do? I mean, I notice a lot of your parliamentary colleagues are calling on CBA to reverse the decision. That is unlikely, I would have thought?

GORMAN: Look, I would rather we don't have to look at regulatory or other options. I really do call on the CEO of Commonwealth Bank to reverse this decision. I'd encourage your listeners to write to the CEO of the Commonwealth Bank, 11 Harbour Street, Sydney 2000 put an old school stamp on it or and put it on a postcard and tell them what you think. What we're doing - we are backing cash. We announced just a few weeks ago that the Government will mandate that businesses selling essential items will have to continue to receive cash. We know that about 1.5 million Australians use cash for more than 80% of their regular transactions. So we're backing cash, and I'd encourage Commonwealth Bank to do the same. We're also taking some action for people who have been slugged with unfair fees, surcharges using their debit card. We've said that we'll get some advice from the RBA, but our intention is that from 1 January 2026, to ban those surcharges. So we're doing what we can in our regulatory environment to back people to use cash and to be able to pay a fair price for things when they are at the checkout. On this one, I mean, I just think common sense should prevail at the CBA, and it should prevail quickly.

MITSOPOULOS: I'll leave it there. Good to talk to you.