Deregulation and weak regulations allows greed and dishonesty to continue in Australia鈥檚 financial sector, argues Suzanne James.
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)
The Big Money Club clearly lives by its own perverse rules.
The belated decision by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to set up a public inquiry into the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) is aimed at heading off the growing calls for a royal commission into the entire scandal-ridden banking sector.
The August 27 announcement by APRA of an 鈥渋ndependent鈥 probe into the country's biggest bank followed a series of scandals that have rocked the financial world.
For a long time, superannuation was available only to permanent public sector workers and managerial employees in the private sector. So-called 鈥渂lue collar鈥 workers were not so privileged. In the mid-1980s, only about a quarter of these workers had access to superannuation, more often than not following union-led campaigns in targeted industries.