It takes only seconds to search for tweets that bag royal commissioner Kenneth Hayne for not publicly recommending prosecutions against corporates and individuals in his final report following the year-long courtroom drama that was his royal commission into financial services misconduct.
One tweeter said there was a long way to go to have bankers and politicians involved in “the dock and people in jail”. Another tweeter declared “Hayne Thing Over” and that there was no time in the clink forecast for criminals, and bankers were protected.
Another tweeter suggested that if both the Federal Treasurer and the banks accepted the report then the final report was weak.
Some people were not happy campers when the final report dropped.
The tweets demonstrated a lust for blood but no appreciation of the wisdom of the move.
Examples such as the recent announcement by the corporate regulator that the investigation into fees being charged for no services involving AMP was finalised.
A media release from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission declared that the investigation into the AMP’s buyer of last resort policy is shut.
This follows consultation with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions which, according to the regulator’s missive, has decided no charges should be brought on that matter. It should be noted that the corporate cop had been speaking to the CDPP in April 2019 about this particular case so this little shindig had been kicking around in the legal eagle’s backblocks for more than two years before the recent announcement.
“ASIC has been conducting investigations into fees for no service conduct by entities within the AMP Limited group, including the BOLR Policy conduct which resulted in two briefs of evidence being referred to the CDPP in mid-2020. ASIC’s investigations into other allegations of fees for no service conduct within the AMP Limited group are continuing,” the regulator said.
It does not mean that it is the end of the story for the AMP Limited group of companies that are still subject of civil actions.
“ASIC has conducted a number of investigations into alleged civil contraventions by entities within the AMP Limited group,” the regulator said. “Civil penalty proceedings were commenced in the Federal Court in May 2021 against five companies that are, or were, part of the AMP Limited group for allegedly charging fees to deceased customers.”
Anyone that followed the royal commission’s public hearings and the sadsack stories, widely reported, would have felt angry for those that were adversely impacted by the actions of financial institutions.
Being outraged at conduct is one thing but the ability to ensure the justice system works as intended is another.
The final report of the Hayne Royal Commission was criticised by a range of commentators because they wanted some sense of restorative justice to emerge from the reports themselves.
Hayne would have understood that naming anybody in the report as being a suitable target for civil or criminal action would have created a checklist against which the processes of law would be judged.
He prudently left those decisions to the relevant authorities because it was not for him to heighten the expectations of an aggrieved cohort and the gaggle of observers in the media.
ASIC’s recent announcement of the CDPP’s decision to not pursue further action in relation to the BOLR case played out before the royal commission further confirms that the royal commissioner’s judgement in making no public recommendation for actions against individuals or entities was the right one.