Tony Abbott refuses to order Royal Commission into Commonwealth Bank

Jim McIlroy writes that Tony Abbott refuses to order Royal Commission into Commonwealth Bank …despite the clear recommendation of a landmark Senate inquiry into financial planning scandals at the CBA.

Susan Price, Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Summer Hill in the upcoming NSW state elections, said, "This scandal underlines the importance of the Socialist Alliance's call for the big banks to be nationalised under workers' and community control.

"Australia's Big Four banks are making massive profits from ripping off the people, while facing minimal public scrutiny. The CBA was a publicly-owned bank, until the Hawke-Keating Labor government privatised it in the early 1990s.

"We need to campaign for the CBA and other big banks to be placed in public hands, and to be run in the interests of the people. Any profits could be used to help fund education, health and public transport — not pouring into the pockets of the super-rich as they are now," Price said.

This objective will not be achieved outside of a Socialist Revolution, but it has value in raising people's consciousness about considering the limitations of Capitalism in providing social benefit.