- by Dr Evan Jones

At present in Australia, banks are effectively above the law with respect to small business customers. Banks operate, self-consciously, in the realm of the law of the jungle. The public image of the Australian regulatory system is that the rule of law prevails. The ACCC, ASIC, APRA, and so on, are the public face of this public image. The public image in this domain is a lie.

Most victims, good law-abiding citizens, have lapsed into passivity, which suits the banks and the regulatory agencies perfectly. The less fuss the better. The victims have been reduced to idleness (when not futilely seeking assistance from politicians and regulators), supported by relatives, and/or are on pensions at public expense. Family breakdown is par for the course. Suicide is not unknown, especially amongst farmers (drought is a contributing factor to depression in the bush, but bank thuggery is also a contributing factor, well known to those affected but suppressed by the media and rendered oblivious to those in authority).

Frankly, one can understand if bank victims took the view that they could achieve better justice if they themselves took the law into their own hands and operated according to the same law of the jungle.