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Yes, Kenneth: the Coalition response to the banking inquiry is pure politics
Yes, the Morrison government has said meekly, to everything the banking royal commissioner Kenneth Hayne has recommended.
In political terms, it’s blindingly obvious why. A federal election is in sight. The Coalition is vulnerable on this issue, having spent years obstructing a deeply necessary inquiry that unearthed a trove of malfeasance – case studies that still beggar belief. Scott Morrison at one point opined rashly that calls for a royal commission into the banking sector (after a string of scandals that, in the end, proved the tip of the iceberg) were a “populist whinge”.
To do anything other than saying “yes Kenneth, thank you Kenneth” would have been politically untenable, and the Coalition is desperate to avoid a fight with Labor on Big Bad Banks, its preferred territory.
By saying yes, and pronto, the government is hoping to shut a potent political issue down, burying it in a blizzard of worthy implementation …