Today, Australians have witnessed one of Malcolm Turnbulls greatest failures of leadership.

Malcolm Turnbull has spent 601 days fighting Labors call for a Royal Commission into the Banking and Financial Sector.

Just 48 hours ago, the Prime Minister said:

We have made it clear that we are not going to establish a royal commission

TURNBULL DOORSTOP - 28 NOVEMBER 2017

It says everything about Turnbulls values and priorities that he only agreed to Labors Royal Commission when the banks told him he had to.

He ignored the pleas of families and small businesses, he rejected the words of whistle-blowers. But when the big banks wrote him a letter, he folded the same day.

Turnbull has always been and always will be - on the side of the banks.

He has let the rorts and rip-offs continue for more than 18 months so he could protect the banks and protect his job. That is unforgivable.

If Mr Turnbull had have listened to Labor, we wouldve had a Royal Commission and it would have been done by now, with its recommendations being implemented.

We are deeply concerned that even today, the Prime Minister said a Royal Commission was regrettable.

Turnbull and his Government voted in the Parliament more than twenty times to protect the banks from a Royal Commission.

Australians have every right to be cynical about todays announcement.

For a successful and comprehensive Royal Commission into the financial services sector to now occur, it is critical that the Opposition is formally consulted.

Failure not to consult will raise serious concerns and doubts about the way in which the Royal Commission is constituted, given that Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison have spent the last 18 months doing everything to avoid one.