Banks warned: Anti coal capitulation will cost

MAY 11, 2017: If banks are going to take actions to discriminate against businesses undertaking legitimate activities, I will take action too.To start with, I'll be pushing for the LNP and the National Party to shut down their accounts with Westpac and go to a bank that does support jobs in regional Queensland because of the stance they have taken against the Adani Carmichael Coal Project.I have been informed that the Mackay Conservation Group is planning to grandstand about their ‘huge win’ outside the Westpac bank in Mackay on Monday, and then head to CommBank to put pressure on them to abandon support for Adani.People have a right to protest against government decisions, but they are really treading close to the edge when they protest against a legitimate business activity, which is a bank financing another company to conduct a completely legal activity.For the banks to acquiesce to these green thugs is unbelievable.If the banks want to take the high moral ground how about they end their association with Woolworths and Coles because they make money out of gambling?Perhaps Westpac should end their relationships with any breweries, distillers and bars because of concerns about alcohol consumption.They might want to consider ceasing associations with fast food restaurants because of health concerns and service stations because of pollution issues.If banks are going to single out a completely legal industrial activity and make a decision off their own bat to not support that activity because of some alleged moral dilemma – where is this going to end?If the extreme green movement want to pursue this avenue, then I think the government needs to consider the need to introduce laws to protect industries from green thuggery.Financial institutions must not be able to discriminate against legal business activities, and I will be raising the need for a law to ban bank discrimination against legitimate business activities in the next party room meeting.