Smithton, a small town in Tasmania, produces $840m of commodities a year. But as cash dwindles, it has lost its CBA and ANZ branches. The mayor wants answers.
Smithton is a picturesque town in the north-west of Tasmania. Its main industries are beef and dairy. Along the coast, boats harvest oysters and crayfish, while on-shore, the biggest employers are the abattoir and a timber mill. The area, with a population of 8117, produces $840 million worth of soft commodities annually.
This week, the Senate’s standing committee on rural and regional affairs visited Launceston, 230 kilometres to the south-east, where Blizzard, Smithton’s mayor, joined other Tasmanian mayors to brief MPs on the impact of branch closures. “We have many small businesses in town, service stations and cafes and second-hand shops, and these closures have created problems. They are taking the risk of holding cash on premise, or taking it home, increasing insurance costs. Some are paying Armaguard to collect money, or are taking the risk of driving it up to Burnie themselves.”
Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh, a former Labor premier of Queensland, assured MPs that lower branch numbers should not be seen as a decline in service options, given digital and phone banking options. Customers of CBA, NAB and Westpac can also use Australia Post offices to bank cash takings.
“There is a massive gulf between how banks view the world, and how their customers experience the world,” says Robert Barwick, research director of the Australian Citizens Party, which lobbied for this inquiry. “Banks see that there aren’t enough people going through the door, but they’ve got a lot of businesses and a lot of wealth being produced around it,” McDonald said.
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