For the many people who have spent years working on this issue, culminating in the senate inquiry being called in 2023, the failure to respond officially to the final report and subsequent behavior of the federal treasurer, is highly disrespectful ... Jim Chalmers needs to recognise the democratic processes of government and stop white-anting the findings of this inquiry.

Just when it seemed ANZ’s attempts to justify the closure of a regional NSW branch in defiance of a condition of the Suncorp acquisition deal not to close any regional sites for three years could not get any more farcical, the bank has upped the ante. In a letter to a customer complaining about the planned closure of the Katoomba branch next month, ANZ claimed that although it had triggered regional branch closure protocols (established as a direct result of two federal government inquiries into regional bank closures), the protocol was not about regional branches.