The planned discount of 50 per cent on interest on the first $1000 of interest earned on deposits will be put off for one year to help fund additional government spending in regional Australia.The deferral, until 2012/13, is one measure affecting the banking industry flowing from the agreement reached between the new minority Labor government and two of three independent members of the House of Representatives needed to prop up the government for a second term. A fourth cross bench MP, a member of the Greens, is also providing support for the government.The Australian reported on this saving measure yesterday afternoon. The decision is yet to be formally announced.The reduced tax for savers will apply to interest earned from deposits with banks, credit unions and building societies, as well as bonds, debentures and annuities. It is one of the few measures arising from the taxation review adopted as policy by the Labor government.There is some prospect of policy activism by the government in relation to aspects of bank pricing and bank practices if the Greens' policy preferences attract any support.The Greens have a handful of prescriptive policies on banking. All banks will have to offer a basic bank account if Greens policy becomes government policy. A basic bank account will offer unlimited Eftpos, a debit card, ATM access, no ongoing service fees, real-time warning of penalty fees and elimination of penalty fees where the cost to banks arises from the actions of third parties.On the other hand the alternative, activist preferences of another rural independent MP, Bob Katter, now will not be relevant given his decision to withhold support for the new federal government.As previously reported in Banking Day, Katter is broadly critical of the major banks. He has explicitly favoured the revival of government-owned development banks to finance agriculture, has criticised the demise of specialist rural credit providers over the past 20 years, and favours many of the economic policies of the 1950s and 1960s.Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, the two independents supporting Labor, are generally regarded as more orthodox on economic issues; Windsor has an economics degree from the University of New England. Banking matters have not loomed large for either of them.The share market appeared to view the Windsor/Oakeshott decision as positive. All four big banks posted gains, with Westpac up 25 cents to $23.03.