State Budget Banks on an Electoral Winner

If you are looking for a popular way of raising revenue, target the banks. If you want to wrong foot the opposition, follow the lead of the Federal Government. The SA Government did both by announcing a Major Bank Levy in last June’s State Budget. Steven Marshall and the Liberal Opposition were snookered.

The Bank Levy was always going to send the banks into a spin. It did much more than that, they came out swinging. Bank SA said it would put scheduled investment, delivering 150 new jobs, on hold. Ironically, this investment was for establishment of a business process automation team, a group that would have been tasked with delivering a substantial reduction in the 3800-strong Bank SA workforce. Bank SA won’t put that measure on hold for very long.