Dominic Perrottet and I have a lot in common.

We’re both suburban dads, both came up through the Young Liberals and both cut our teeth in the corporate world before heading into politics.

Ironically, we can both say that Paul Keating has motivated us in some way.

In fact, as my then local member, Keating actually motivated me to join the Bankstown Young Liberals.

As a young person who entered the workforce when youth unemployment was nearly 50 per cent, it’s impossible for me to sit around to cop the veneration of St Paul.

His recent claim that he’s encouraging Premier Perrottet to make “people” the priority of the state government is bitterly ironic.

For those of us who are on the wrong side of 50, it would not come as a shock that Paul Keating’s government caused my father prolonged periods of unemployment and created 17 per cent mortgage interest rates. And Keating was the most uneducated prime minister since World War II.

Now I’m not saying you have to be a tradesman or professional to be in politics, in fact it would be disingenuous of me not to acknowledge the vision of Gough Whitlam by establishing the University of Western Sydney.

It thereby gave us westies a crack at a tertiary education but, like Bob Hawke mused, it’s no coincidence that Keating is the only former Labor prime minister incapable of writing his own memoirs.

Although there is one thing I thank Keating for.

His government’s economic failings forced me to mow lawns and paint houses to pay for my university degree, with that degree being my entry into the Royal Military College at Duntroon.

His cosy, and sometimes deeply hypocritical, relationship with the union movement gave me the motive to work in industry associations and the rest, as they say, is history.

As important as it is for Australian historians to objectively compare and contrast our leaders it’s probably a good time to note that as Treasurers, Dominic Perrottet and his federal counterpart Josh Frydenberg have managed the economy through an unprecedented number of national crises.

The cost of the war on terror, drought and climate emergencies, as well as the global pandemic, have forced treasurers and first ministers into providing a higher level of governance. Keating, however, faced no disaster that wasn’t of his own making.

Recently, I made the point to some journalists that the reason we have crap politicians in this country is because we treat our politicians like crap.

And I know us politicians are our own worst enemy and I’m in no position to cast the first stone, but it’s also just as important that we stop offering up blind praise to our leaders simply because it’s fashionable or, worst still, it suits the agenda of contemporary thought.

Do I sound bitter? I hope so.

The boyhood memories of having household utilities cut off and the embarrassment of having well-natured friends anonymously drop off groceries while listening to Paul Keating say that his recession was one we “had to have” still cuts to the bone.

Labor colleagues often remind me that Keating was disloyal to everyone who ever backed him in.

Saying that he has to teach any Liberal leader about “people” is like Henry VIII offering marriage guidance. He seemed to hate people, particularly his constituents in Bankstown, which is why he lived in Elizabeth Bay.

In short, Paul Keating was a complete prick and it took John Howard a decade to fix his mess.

America is in dire straits.

Leaders should be standing up to and denouncing nonsense like this.

Instead of that, they bow - or kneel - to it.

Apartheid by any other name..........

https://blackxmas.org

UPDATE - you can let Mr Barton know how you feel here:

 

[email protected]

 

Rod Barton MP

54 minutes ago

The pandemic bill I will be supporting today is fundamentally a different bill.

It will never be perfect. But, the oversight provided by this bill is exponentially better than last week's bill and far better than the SOE.

We have absolutely curbed the powers of the Government. ...

Right.

He's so confident in what he's done that he's locked his Twitter account.

21-320MR ASIC launches multiple legal actions against Westpac

ASIC has commenced six civil penalty proceedings against Westpac in the Federal Court. The proceedings, each the result of an individual ASIC investigation, allege widespread compliance failures across multiple Westpac businesses. The alleged conduct occurred over many years and affected many thousands of consumers.

The Westpac businesses against whom the allegations are made include its banking, superannuation and wealth management brands as well as Westpac’s former general insurance business.

ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said ‘ASIC is disappointed to have to yet again commence legal proceedings, on this occasion no fewer than six times, against a major bank. The conduct and breaches alleged in these proceedings caused widespread consumer harm and ranged across Westpac’s everyday banking, financial advice, superannuation and insurance businesses.

‘A common aspect across these matters has been poor systems, poor processes and poor governance, which is suggestive of an overall poor compliance culture within Westpac at the relevant time. Customers are entitled to have trust and confidence in Westpac being able to deliver what it promises, without suffering financial harm. Westpac must urgently improve its systems and culture to ensure these systemic failures do not continue.

‘It is unprecedented for ASIC to file multiple proceedings against the same respondent at the same time,’ said Ms Court. ‘However, these were exceptional circumstances. ASIC had numerous Westpac-related matters under investigation through the course of 2021, and we decided to expedite those matters for consideration by the Court at the earliest opportunity.’

Westpac has admitted the allegations in each of the proceedings and will remediate approximately $80 million to customers.

ASIC and Westpac will submit to the Court that combined penalties of more than $100 million are appropriate.

Each matter will now be separately considered and determined by the Court.

The six matters filed against Westpac concern:

Fees for no service – deceased customers: ASIC alleges that over a 10-year period, Westpac and related entities within the Westpac group, charged over $10 million in advice fees to over 11,000 deceased customers for financial advice services that were not provided due to their death.

General insurance: ASIC alleges that Westpac distributed duplicate insurance policies to over 7,000 customers for the same property at the same time, causing customers to pay for two (or more) insurance policies where they had no need for the additional policies. ASIC also alleges that Westpac issued insurance policies to, and sought payment of premiums from, 329 customers who had not consented to entering into an insurance policy.

Insurance in super: ASIC alleges that Westpac subsidiary BT Funds Management charged members insurance premiums that included commission payments, despite commissions having been banned under the Future of Financial Advice reforms. BT Funds Management represented that the insurance fees had been properly deducted from members accounts when in fact the insurance fees that were deducted included commissions that were not permitted. Some members also paid commissions to financial advisers via their premiums even though they had elected to have the financial adviser component removed from their account. BT Funds is remediating over $12 million to over 8,000 affected members who were incorrectly charged.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has also been reviewing these matters and ASIC and APRA have taken a coordinated approach to their respective inquiries.

Inadequate fee disclosure: ASIC alleges that Westpac licensees BT Financial Advice, Securitor and Magnitude (all no longer operating) charged ongoing contribution fees for financial advice to customers without proper disclosure. Some fees were not disclosed to the customer at all, at other times the amount disclosed was less than the amount charged. It is estimated that at least 25,000 customers were charged over $7 millon in fees that had not been disclosed, or adequately disclosed.

Deregistered company accounts: ASIC alleges that Westpac did not have appropriate processes to manage accounts held in the names of deregistered companies. As a result, Westpac allowed approximately 21,000 deregistered company accounts to remain open. Westpac continued to charge fees on those accounts and allowed funds to be withdrawn from these accounts that should have been remitted to ASIC or the Commonwealth.

Debt onsale: ASIC alleges that Westpac sold consumer credit card and flexi-loan debt to debt purchasers with incorrect interest rates. These interest rates were higher than Westpac was contractually allowed to charge on at least part of the debts, resulting in more than 16,000 customers, who were likely to be in financial distress, being overcharged interest. Westpac and/or the debt purchasers have refunded over $17 million to affected customers.

ASIC further alleges that in all matters, excluding Debt onsale and Insurance in super, Westpac failed to ensure that its financial services were provided efficiently, honestly and fairly.

The full list of Westpac businesses against which the allegations are made are:

• Westpac Banking Corporation
• Advance Asset Management Limited
• Asgard Capital Management Limited
• BT Funds Management Limited
• BT Funds Management No. 2 Limited
• BT Portfolio Services Limited
• Securitor Financial Group Pty Limited
• Magnitude Group Pty Ltd 

Download

Fees for no service - deceased customers: Originating Process (PDF 855 KB) and Statement of Agreed Facts (PDF 4 MB) 

General insurance: Originating Process (PDF 498 KB) and Statement of Agreed Facts (PDF 1 MB)  

Insurance in super: Originating Process (PDF 580 KB) and Statement of Agreed Facts (PDF 11 MB)  

Inadequate disclosure of fees: Originating Process (PDF 833 KB) and Statement of Agreed Facts (PDF 3 MB) 

Deregistered company accounts: Originating Process (PDF 529 KB) and Statement of Agreed Facts (PDF 10 MB)

Debt onsale: Originating Process (PDF 636 KB) and Statement of Agreed Facts (PDF 3 MB) 

Oh. Oh okay.

No. pic.twitter.com/FR43Kq9MZR

— Cap'n Stavros 🏴‍☠️ (@captain_stavros) November 29, 2021