Value for money needed to be explained before RC
Australians will not vote to have a Royal Commission into the financial services sector if they are given an explanation about how they are getting value for money, according to former Treasurer, Peter Costello
Speaking at the Financial Services Council (FSC) Leaders’ Summit on Wednesday, chair of the Australian Future Fund, Peter Costello asked what Australians were angry about for them to want a Royal Commission with the banks.
“What do they feel angry about? If I were an American I would be really angry about having my tax payer money [used] to bail out the banks [during the global financial crisis]. We didn’t have any of that,” he said.
“Until you diagnose what they’re angry about, how can you fix it?”
“I think they feel that sure, banks are important but they look at salaries and say ‘are they really necessary, are we really getting value for money?’ that’s a big part of it.”
Costello said the Australian public needed to have explained to it that they were getting value for money and that the same went for superannuation.
“I think with super you’ve got to explain to them that they’re getting value for money. With millennials, they enter a transaction on Uber and they get a ride from A to Z and it’s $10, that’s value for money,” he said.
“With super, I am getting value for money but the trouble with super is, the value comes years later. This is a timeframe that millennials don’t think about so you’ve got to somehow engage with them and explain to them although the value is delayed, it’s still value for money.”
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