Westpac’s deception has left Coober Pedy’s bankless residents living in fear - MR 31/10/23

Because Westpac lied to the Senate inquiry into regional bank closures back in February, the residents of Coober Pedy in remote South Australia are stuck in a financial “nightmare”.
Senior 9News.com.au journalist Emily McPherson has documented their nightmare in a very important 27 October article titled “Coober Pedy's last bank closed eight months ago. Here's what happened next”.
The residents revealed:
• They avoid going to the bank because the closest bank is now 540 km away in Port Augusta.
• Coober Pedy’s opal tourism economy is heavily cash-dependent, but taking cash to Port Augusta “is a safety issue”—with no mobile coverage for two-and-a-half hours of the trip, businesses fear they are a “target” for criminals who assume cars driving from Coober Pedy to Port Augusta are carrying cash.
• The few ATMs in town always run out of money because the businesses which operate them can’t get enough cash—petrol station and restaurant owner Chris Pantelis said he previously withdrew $50,000-$70,000 from the bank to restock his ATM, but now he can only restock it from his own cash takings.
• Only Bank@Post provides banking services in Coober Pedy, but customers can’t open bank accounts at the post office, and it limits withdrawals to $2,000 and deposits to $7,000, woefully inadequate for a town regularly visited by opal buyers carrying half a million dollars in cash.
• Michael Edgecomb, from community group Coober Pedy Together, noted the local Aboriginal population and others “rely on being able to open accounts, get replacement cards and check identities—which you can't do at the post office”, so “community services are having to do a lot more work to help people prove their identity so they can access cash, and it's really tricky”.

Coober Pedy is only enduring this nightmare because of Westpac’s deliberate deception back in February, when the Senate established the current inquiry into bank closures in regional Australia.
On the 10th of February, Inquiry Chair Sena..