Now the Hayne royal commission into banking and finance is done and dusted, the pundits in the media — some of whom opposed it in the first place — are drawing conclusions and opining on whether Kenneth Hayne was tough enough in his recommendations.
As the Labor opposition is fond of telling us, the government stubbornly resisted the idea of a commission for 18 months before then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull suddenly did a backflip under pressure from backbenchers and eventually the banks.
But it wasn’t only the politicians who were resistant to running a microscope over the financial sector – some of the best-known names in the media publicly opposed a commission, ignoring the deafening roar that called for it.
One of the most upfront about his conversion on the road to the royal commission was long-standing News Corporation finance journalist Terry McCrann. In August 2017 he told readers the country was “tumbling inexorably towards a (completely unnecessary, politically cynical, stupid and potentially harmful) royal commission”.
It was “not quite a royal commission about nothing; just a royal commission about nothing that we don’t already know”, he later said.
However once commissioner Hayne had reported, McCrann admitted the public bloodletting had been very worthwhile.
“I have to confess to being … very surprised and very, very impressed. Commissioner Kenneth Hayne has delivered a very nuanced and sophisticated — and most importantly, effective — report and set of recommendations,” McCrann said.
“I am more than happy to say I was wrong in arguing against having this royal commission. But thanks only to Hayne.”
Commercial TV and radio star Ross Greenwood also took the truth serum. In September 2016 he told 2GB listeners many times, “I’ve raised the argument that a royal commission into the banks is a complete waste of time.”
A couple of years on, Greenwood’s views had changed and he recanted his view that the regulators had the job in hand.
“As it turns out, the major banks and financial institutions treated the regulators as a speed bump, almost like a business partner that they would negotiate with and cut a deal with,” he said on Nine’s website.
“They deliberately sought to mislead the regulators, and that’s what was the most astonishing and gobsmacking to me … It’s so important that the commission happened.”
What really turned the opponents around was the AMP scandal in April, when CEO Craig Meller and chairwoman Catherine Brenner were forced to stand down after admissions the group had consistently lied to regulators.
That triggered the following from Andrew Bolt on his Bolt Report show: “Confession: I thought that this royal commission into financial institutions wouldn’t uncover anything that we really didn’t know already. Wrong!”
Another initial commission opponent was The Australian’s Judith Sloan who, after it was called in November 2017, said: “Let’s bring Malcolm Turnbull to account, not the banks. In my view there is no case for a royal commission into banking.”
But after the AMP scandal emerged she called on the government to admit, “We have been misled. It’s much worse. We’re concerned about ordinary people.”
“[The commission hearings had revealed] a nasty connection between these people, [banks and regulators] and the government should take the blame for ASIC incompetence,” she told Sky News.
The Australian’s business columnist John Durie was another opponent who said in June 2016 that a commission was a complete waste of time and arguably a touch dangerous.
Post-AMP scandal, his column acknowledged his former expression was wrong.
Probably the pundit to come out best regarding the commission is The Australian’s Robert Gottliebsen. He told readers at the height of the property boom in November 2017 the commission and regulators cutting back lending would “create a long-term threat to property prices”. And prices have indeed fallen.
They were all voluntarily and happy to be misled, and to use their positions to try to argue to their audience why a RC wasn’t necessary/why the other side was wrong : because to admit one was neeeded back then, meant being seen to be aligned with “the wrong side”.
And if “the wrong side” was right about this :- “God knows what else they’ve been right about” while these conservative pimps had been wrong on so many fronts.
Agree with your sentiment, but if the media figures are paid/induced to do things then it is prostitution rather than pimping. Pimping should be reserved for their business and political masters.
The list of names is just so predictable. The standout for me is Judith Sloan. Every panel I see her on she is mostly at odds with the other panelists, and that’s because she’s always wrong! And she teaches economics, doesn’t she? I think the reason she’s always wrong is that she actually lives on a different planet to the rest of us. It may well be the same one Janet Albrechtson lives on.
That the banks were ripping people off wasn’t exactly a borderline call. The sector was on fire. These people performed a back-flip,and were people who would have been professionally engaged with the total scope of the issue.
Big deal? Self interest made them willfully blind to an obvious sad state of affairs, and self interest made them tear the blindfold off when not even they could continue the ridiculous denial.
Yes, the wilfully blind churnalists, stenographers, typists, and typhoid Mary opinionistas all part of the non tax paying corporate welfare chiseller NewsCrap organisation did a big about turn.
It won’t be the only time this year that Bolt has to eat huge quantities of humble pie for his previous unqualified and biased support of public figures and institutions caught in criminal activity.
I’ve missed Blot having his 4 nights a week tongue bath with the Poison Dwarf who has now resumed his usual evening slot on 2GB.
They were far & away the best radio comedy available so I hope that they haven’t fallen out. (Blot had a hissy fit when the unDivine One took over the slot for a week a year ago and refused to continue when (even she)she laughed once too often at his idiocies.)
However the Hobbesian – ‘nasty, brutish & short’ – Price did have a shocker this week trying to tell an ex fire commissioner that cliate change is a myth, repeating Blot’s drivel point by point and being skewered over & over.
Whether it is tobacco, asbestos, environment protection or neolib capitalism, these people have so much sunk cost in their previous positions that to admit being wrong threatens their concept of self worth.
.. sorry about the ITALICS