Council says no to bank closures in regional Australia

Published on 28 March 2023

Cowra Mayor, Cr Bill West is encouraging community members to make a submission to the inquiry into bank closures in regional Australia by the deadline of this Friday, 31 March 2023.

“I hope many of our Shire residents will have a say. It is appalling for our community to see extraordinary profits being made by the banking industry in parallel with a lower level of service,” said Cr West.

“The theory behind bank branch closures is that so much can be done online. However, this is just plain wrong thinking. We know there is poor internet usage in the Central NSW region where 72.45% of households are connected to the internet, well below the 82.5% across NSW,” said Cr West.

“When people leave town to do their banking, they also buy other goods and services out of town which reduces the money circulating in smaller community economies and puts other local businesses at risk. Other industry productivity is impacted as businesses and workers have to take the time to travel further to bank,” said Cr West.

“The assumption that online services are good enough to replace in person banking is flawed. Rather, it is disabling regional communities.

The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members. Policy and legislation ought to be put in place that ensures that essential services like banking be included in a broader Community Services Obligation framework,” concluded Cr West.

Submissions to the inquiry are due 31 March 2023. Ironically it is not as easy as sending an email or posting a letter.

Submissions to the inquiry must be made via a log in process at https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/OnlineSubmission.

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