SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER
MINISTER FINANCE
MINISTER FOR WOMEN
MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
TODAY SHOW
WEDNESDAY, 4 DECEMBER 2024
SUBJECTS: Commonwealth Bank withdrawal fee decision; national accounts; Albanese Government’s cost of living relief.
SYLVIA JEFFREYS, HOST: The Commonwealth Bank is facing criticism this morning after unveiling new changes that would see some customers charged $3 just to withdraw their own money. For more, we’re joined now by Finance Minister Katy Gallagher to discuss. Katy, good morning to you and thanks for your time. This has been slammed as a terrible decision by some. What do you make of the move?
SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Yeah, certainly we’d be saying to CommBank to reconsider this decision. I think people understand that there’s some charges relating to banking transactions, but this seems pretty extraordinary to have a charge of this size for a simple transaction of going into a bank and withdrawing your own money. So, we think this sounds pretty rough and that CBA should really reconsider it.
JEFFREYS: Well, it sounds rough when you consider that it will mostly affect their older customers who make their withdrawals inside the branch. Do they have any rights to contest this?
GALLAGHER: Well, obviously the customers can absolutely exercise their rights. They can switch banks if they really want to take it to that point, but they can also complain. And I think you’re right. The point is, those customers going into banks, or who will be subject to these charges, are often older Australians. And again, I would say to CommBank, as a sign of good will, they should really reconsider this decision. It just sounds like such a high charge to pay for such a simple transaction. And I think people are really sick of this, if they see something that seems to be over and above what would be the actual cost of making that transaction, and especially to go and get your own money out.
JEFFREYS: And especially when they posted a $9.5 billion profit in the last financial year. Let’s get onto the latest GDP figures, they’re due to be released later on this morning. What can we expect?
GALLAGHER: Look, we expect that we will see continued low growth. We know the economy is very soft and subdued, and that’s really a factor of inflation, rising interest rates, and some of that global uncertainty. And when you translate those numbers, we always talk about numbers in the economy, I mean what it’s saying is people are doing it pretty tough at the moment. You know, we have some good news on the jobs front, that our unemployment rate is remaining very low. But the government recognises that for households around Australia, they are feeling the impact of those rising interest rates. And that’s why we’ve been doing what we can to provide some cost-of-living relief through tax cuts and energy bill rebates to try and ease some of that pressure.
JEFFREYS: Yeah, well let’s talk about that, because government spending is expected to be the main contributing factor to these GDP figures that come out later today. And, of course, energy rebates make up a big portion of that. Will you be extending those rebates?
GALLAGHER: Look, we’re working through some of the final details for our mid-year economic update right now. Obviously, how we can continue to support households with cost-of-living pressures is front and centre of our thinking. We’ve always been upfront and clear about that. So, we’ll work through all of those decisions over the next little while. But yeah, that’s why we changed our position on tax cuts, because we wanted to make sure that people were getting that significant relief at a time when it was needed the most.
JEFFREYS: Okay, all eyes on those GDP figures out later this morning. Minister thanks for your time today, we appreciate it.
