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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-12-02 Daily Xml
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Financial Literacy Education

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:00): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question on the topic of industry-run financial education programs in our public schools to the Treasurer.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: During the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry it came to light that children's accounts set up under the Dollarmites program had been used by the Commonwealth Bank to game the system and increase their profits. Similar 'financial education' programs run by other financial institutions as well were slammed in that report. They were also condemned by consumer groups such as Choice and the Australian Education Union.

In 2018, it was revealed that the education department in South Australia has no record of which schools engage in these programs or how much money financial institutions such as the Commonwealth Bank give to public schools to incentivise them to participate.

I note that, according to current websites, these programs are still being run in South Australian schools, yet these schemes have been labelled as 'dishonest' and 'greedy' by the head of the banking royal commission, outed for grooming kids as customers under the guise of education and so-called community service. A report by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission found that there was 'limited evidence' that these programs created any lasting money-saving behaviour by these students.

This past week the Victorian government has banned the banks from running the predatory programs in their public schools in that state, stating, 'Victorian students deserve high-quality financial literacy free from commercial interests.' My questions to the Treasurer are:

1. Since this has been exposed by the royal commission, what measures has the South Australian Marshall Liberal government taken to ensure that there is now a record of which schools are participating in the Dollarmites program and how much money the Commonwealth Bank has given to our public schools to incentivise them? Has anything changed on that front?

2. What steps have been taken to ban the banks from delivering these predatory financial education programs through our public schools?

3. Was any consideration given to the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry findings and recommendations to cease this predatory behaviour?

4. Why are we letting these financial institutions use our public schools and our class time as another marketing tool and an opportunity to groom these children?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:03): This is appropriately a question for my very hardworking ministerial colleague the Minister for Education. I am happy to refer the details of the question to the minister and officially bring back a reply on his behalf in relation to the education department.

All I can say is that I accept that times have perhaps changed in many respects. I remember fondly my first bank savings book when I was at primary school.

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink: You've still got it!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: As my ministerial colleague says, I've still got it, and that's true. The modest amount of money in there is probably an expired account, but it's still there. I can indicate it did not groom me, because I didn't go on to be a customer of that particular banking institution at the time. Anyway, I do accept that we are in different times now to 100 years ago when I was at primary school.

The only other comment that I would make is, as I said, this rightly is an issue for my colleague and it's not for me to give my personal views on, other than to say, as I have demonstrated before, in my particular portfolio I don't always accept as the Bible—and that is that they are always 100 per cent right—the views of royal commissioners in whatever area they might happen to be.

I certainly give great respect to the views of royal commissioners, but they are not tablets handed down on the mount, they are the views of esteemed bodies that have undertaken esteemed bodies of work and we should give them great regard and respect but, as has occurred in a couple of other areas, I have considered some recommendations from royal commissioners and I have not accepted them all as being a view that I necessarily agree with. As I said, I hasten to say, this is not my area of responsibility; it is an area of responsibility for the Minister for Education and I will bring back a reply.

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