Member for Barkly Steve Edgington says the sudden closure of the Westpac bank in Tennant Creek left residents in the lurch forcing them to do online banking or change banks, with the company now being sanctioned by the country’s banking watchdog

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Australia's banking watchdog has publicly sanctioned Westpac over the bank's
southern branch closure in Tenant Creek now in September. Back
in twenty twenty two, hundreds of Westpac customers in Tenant
Creek and surrounding remote communities were alarmed to find that
their local branch had closed without notice. For some that
change meant that they'd turned to online banking or changing banks,

(00:23):
but for others it meant a loss of face to
face banking left them unable to access their money. Now
joining me on the line is the Member for Barkley,
Steve Edgington. Good morning to you, Steve.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Good morning and Katie, and good morning to all the listeners.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Now, Steve, what did the closure of the Westpac bank
mean to locals at the time that this happened.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, it had a significant impact on Tenant Creek residents
and of course the surrounding communities in the Berkley. As
I said back in I think it was September twenty
twenty two. The bank was virtually open one day and
closed the next. And look under the I think there's

(01:07):
a closure protocol as well as the banking Code of
Practice that what should have happened, There should have been
twelve weeks written notice of a bank closing, and the
Westpac Corporation clearly didn't abide by those the Code of
Conduct and the Code of Practice in regard to closure
of banks. So what really happened was that people were

(01:31):
virtually told, well, you can just go over to the
post office and do your banking there, So there was
a complete loss of face to face the banking and
customer service. Many people in the Barklay, particularly the vulnerable residents,
don't have access to the Internet. Many of those vulnerable

(01:51):
residents don't even have a telephone to do telephone banking,
so the impact overnight was quite substantial.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
I bet it, and I know that Tenant Creek or
I get the sense, and I'm sure our listeners will
correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the sense
that Tenant Creek is really not the only location where
this has happened. You know, we've sort of seen in
different more regional towns around Australia where banks have made
those decisions to not continue operations. But it has a

(02:19):
huge impact on locals that live in those towns. So
I get that they're you know, I get that they're
commercial decisions that get made, but you sort of just
wonder about that customer service, and you know that that
loss of face to face banking for locals.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Well exactly, And I think since the closure of the
Tenant Creek branch, my understanding is that the Catherine branch
has also closed. But in regard to that face to
face it's as if Westpack has really lost touch with
the grass roots customers, the day to day customers that
are going in there managing a cash account or a

(03:02):
savings account or a chech account. We're talking about small
amounts of money where people need to sometimes have that
face to face service. They may not have their key
card with them, they can talk to somebody over the counter,
access their account, find out how much money is in
their bank account, and withdraw deposit money there on the spot.
So the loss of that face to face service was

(03:26):
a huge impact because the reality is that whilst you
can withdraw money at the post office, that simply can't
happen unless you're there with your key card, identification, a
whole range of things. So that face to face service
has really been a huge loss and people are still suffering.
Katie and many people have tried to work around the closure.

(03:50):
Some of the customers have eventually transferred to the A
and Z branch Intenet Creek, which is the last bank
intended Creek. So people are still work looking through it
as we speak.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Now, tell me what so from yesterday, obviously this Lenkedy investigation,
the Banking Code Compliance Committee then found that Westpac had
breached its obligations in a serious and systemic manner over
its sudden departure from Tenant Creek. Has there been much
reaction to that yesterday from the Tenant Creek locals.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Well, there has been, and I did note that some
of the locals did speak with the media about that.
I'm actually up in Robinson River at the moment as
we speak, which is about one hundred and fifty kilometers
from Boro Lula. So look, I'll be back there next week.
But look, the reality is that people are still talking

(04:43):
about it, day in day out, about the loss of
Westpact because, as I said, that face to face customer
service is gone. And the real problem, of course is
that there are a lot of people that use that
type of banking service where English is a second or
third language. So going into the branch certainly helped them

(05:06):
to navigate some of the systems when dealing with day
to day banking. But at the time of closure, where
people couldn't access their money, put a lot of pressure
on the non government services, particularly Catholic Care, who provided
some assistance and service to many people around town. But look,

(05:27):
when people can't access their money, what it really means
is that they can't access the necessities of life, and
that's food, drink, and the ability to go and buy
groceries at the store. So they did have a huge impact.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Now, Steve tell us more broadly, how are things going
in the Barkley at the moment. I know you said
you're not intendant at the moment, you're aut in one
of the community areas, But how are things going at
the moments?

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, look, things are going pretty well intented Greek, you know,
at the moment, particularly around mining. We've got two mining
projects that are moving ahead at the moment. To one
of those is Northern Iron, which is a project out
near Warrigo, which is about fifty five kilometers from Tenet Creek.
So part of that project will be processing tailings to

(06:15):
extract the magnetite. There's also another project Tenant Mining, which
is on the eastern side of Tenant Creek, and part
of that project will be doing some more mining around
what's called Nobles Knob, which is an open cup mine
that's sat dormant there for twenty five nearly thirty years. So,
you know, we're very positive about those projects and hopefully

(06:39):
what we'll see is the creation of jobs for local people.
Hey tell me.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Obviously you're out and about driving around as well. Any
updates on the Berkeley Highway. We've been told that there's
quite a bit of damage around the place along the highway.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Still, Yes, I drove along the Berkeley Highway on Sunday
to travel to Bora Lula. The area that's substantially damaged
is it's roughly about a fifty kilometer stretch between Three
Ways and the Berkley Homestead. Most of that damage is
on towards the Stuart Highway, and so the first fifty

(07:17):
kilometers from three Ways is substantially damaged. Look, my understanding
is that contractors are about to start on the repairs,
and that's really good to see. So I do know
that the staff in Dipple have been working hard to
get that project moving and recently I heard from a
contractor that that repairs will be underway pretty soon.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
Well, Steve Edgington, good to speak with you this morning.
Appreciate your time and no doubt we'll talk to you
again soon.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Thank you, Katie, and good morning to all the listeners.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Thank you,