The Liberal Party has today confirmed that it will not take the Australian people and thousands of victims of banking scandals into its confidence by releasing the final report of the Banking Royal Commission at the earliest opportunity, instead holding onto it for three days.

The Liberals handling of the Banking Royal Commission has been woeful from start to finish, having voted 26 times against establishing one and refusing to extend it to hear from more victims of banking scandals, and last week we had confirmation that Scott Morrison was the last person standing within government to agree to an inquiry.

Theres absolutely nothing stopping the Government from releasing the final report on the Saturday ahead of the Government, and Opposition, providing their responses to the Royal Commissions findings.

Refusing to release the Royal Commissions final report immediately would unnecessarily politicise the handling of the report and give rise to potential material market risks around leaks of all or part of the report.

The fact is, with the Liberal Party refusing to turn-up to Parliament, the scope to implement legislation in response to the Royal Commission before 1 July 2019 is limited, and so holding onto the report makes little sense.

The afternoon of Monday 4 February is not the first opportunity outside market trading to release the report that will actually be on Saturday 2 February.

Josh Frydenberg released the Royal Commissions interim report on the day they received it that was appropriate and so is releasing the final report as soon as circumstances allow.

Labor called for this Royal Commission, Labor fought for this Royal Commission, Labor will establish a Financial Services Royal Commission Implementation Taskforce, and Labor will work day and night to protect Australian businesses and consumers from this appalling misconduct.