Bank lobbyist Roger Beaumont to be nominated for Australian of the Year by banking reform activist
Thursday, 14 May 2026
Banking reform activist Kent Duston intends to nominate the head of the New Zealand Banking Association for the Australian of the Year award, he told a Commerce Commission conference.
Duston, from the Banking Reform Coalition, said he intended to nominate Roger Beaumont for his successful lobbying on behalf of Australian banks, which were sending billions of dollars of profit from New Zealand each year in dividends to their Australian shareholders.
“Roger is a smart, affable, personable chap, and clearly very good at his job,” said Duston, who was invited by the competition regulator to speak at the Competition Matters conference on Thursday at the SkyCity International Convention Centre in Auckland.
“Whatever he’s being paid by the banks is probably a tiny fraction of what he’s worth to them, because under his stewardship the environment that has seen tens of billions of dollars of our national treasure funnelled into the pockets of foreigners has not only continued, but has in fact flourished.”
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Duston said: “At the Banking Reform Coalition, we think Roger’s efforts to enrich Australians at the expense of New Zealanders should be recognised and celebrated – and so we intend putting Roger’s name forward as Australian of the Year.”
Though the comment was made to underline a point about bank profitability, Duston said he fully intended to make the nomination.
Beaumont, who was not at the conference, told The Post: “I’m flattered by the call out, but I assume he’s rehearsing for a stand-up comedy audition.”
Beaumont said: “Kent is often on about bank profits and never talks about the huge direct investment our banks make in New Zealand, which amounts to over $60 billion, to meet the capital requirements that help fund the financial needs of our businesses and households.”
He said: “The return on that investment averages around 11.5% per annum, which is in the middle of the pack compared to other major New Zealand companies. He also ignores the fact that banks make a net contribution to the New Zealand economy once you take into account the billions they collectively pay in tax and running their businesses here, and that they employ around 30,000 New Zealanders.”
Banks were one of two sectors that came in for special attention at the conference, alongside the powerful electricity “gentailers”, as drags on New Zealand productivity, innovation and growth.
David Haugh, the head of the OECD’s New Zealand desk, told delegates at the conference that reducing bank profitability was one of the keys to turning around New Zealand’s economic performance.
“Lending margins are at the upper end of the OECD range,” he said.
“Obviously, if the banking system is foreign-owned, and is making large profits, they're being transferred to its owners outside the country. That's profit that's not being recycled necessarily back into New Zealand,” Haugh said.
“A key issue for making the New Zealand economy work better is to reduce the profitability of banks in the country, unfortunately for the banks,” he said.
Duston was speaking after a panel session taking place under Chatham House rules, in which bank control of the payments system was the reason it was judged by University College London as being one of the least advanced in the entire world.
Duston singled out ANZ in New Zealand in his speech, saying it had a 22% return on equity compared to an OECD median of just 7%.
He said New Zealanders contributed 43% of the Australian ANZ Group’s total global profits in the last financial year.
“ANZ increased its profits by 21% in the midst of a brutal recession,” Duston said. “They didn’t do that by being 21% more efficient, or 21% more innovative. They did so solely by sticking their hands deeper and longer into New Zealanders' pockets.”
“Families up and down the country pay more for their credit cards and loans and mortgages than they should,” Duston said.
Duston used his time at the podium to draw attention to what he saw as inaction by the Government.
He said nearly three years after Finance Minister Nicola Willis promised to put banks “on notice“, nothing had been done to curb their profit margins.
And he criticised the Government for siding with banks in a failed attempt to derail a class action lawsuit against ANZ and ASB.
Had a bill put forward by former Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Scott Simpson not been defeated, Duston said $260 million would have been sent to Australia instead of remaining with hard-pressed families here in Aotearoa as part of the class action settlement.
ASB settled the case for $135.6m, and ANZ lost its case, and could have to repay around $125m to borrowers, though it could still appeal.
Duston ended his speech by calling on Parliament to empower a “muscular“ Commerce Commission to proactively break up failing sectors that did not serve New Zealanders.