CROSSBENCHERS have thrown their weight behind an Australian Greens' bill to reform the banking sector.
Independents Andrew Wilkie, Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott and Bob Katter and WA Nationals MP Tony Crook have backed a bill by Greens MP Adam Bandt to overhaul the banks.
The bill followed weeks of debate over the size of bank chiefs' pay packets, interest rate hikes, high fees and the power of the big four banks.
The crossbenchers said both the Government and Opposition had failed to produce any significant policies in the area and it was time to take action.
Mr Bandt's bill before the Lower House includes the abolition of $2 ATM fees and mortgage exit fees, and a requirement for banks to offer a basic fee-free account and mortgage products with interest rates that go up and down based on the real cost of lending.
"If they want either of their packages to get through, they are going to need to talk to us," Mr Bandt said in Canberra today.
"There will be support from the crossbench for the Greens' banking bill."
Mr Crook said the Greens had been "on the front foot" with their banking reforms.
"There is a real opportunity over the summer break for both the Government and Opposition to put forward some serious amendments, along with the Greens' bill.
"There's a real opportunity to deliver some real benefit to those people stung by bank."
Mr Wilkie said the Coalition had proposed "one reasonably small reform" and the Government had been "totally flat-footed" on banks.
"At the moment the big four banks are acting absolutely outrageously ... and the public interest has been lost in this," he said.
Mr Oakeshott said he hoped the final bank reform package included greater consumer education on how to swap banks, as well as put pressure on banks to protect savings and not indulge in risky investment strategies.
He urged the Ggovernment and Opposition to work over the parliamentary break.
"It is not a Christmas break, but a time for some genuine substantial reform," he said.
Mr Katter, a conservative Independent from north Queensland, said the final reform package also needed to deal with banks chiefs' salary packages and the process of foreclosure, which was driving some farmers to suicide.
"It needs to be pretty serious stuff when Adam (Bandt) and I are on the same side of the fence together," he said of his Greens colleague.
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