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Twitter has aroused fury at the "arrogant, petulant, disdainful" performance of National Australia Bank President Ken Henry at the Royal Bank Inquiry.
Dr. Henry, a multimillionaire who was once the most powerful and respected official in Australia, provoked outrage by grumbling at answers, mocking questions or refusing to answer, and speaking in a low voice.
The former Treasury Secretary explained to Rowena Orr, QC, Senior Counsel, the questions he thought he should answer and the questions he did not ask.
The posters on Twitter felt that his "sneaky" and "casual" answers should lead him to withdraw from the NAB board and one called him a "dinosaur".
Others said Henry had "abused … disrespected" Mrs. Orr and some threatened to close their NAB bank accounts immediately.
Dr. Henry's page on Wikipedia was briefly reissued to indicate that he had appeared before the Royal Commission as an "arrogant tool and a real bag of bullets".
While other heads of banking and financial institutions apologized to the royal commission and conceded errors, Dr. Henry was less willing.
Take this exchange when Ms. Orr asked Dr. Henry about the NAB board's response to the "zero-fee" scandal.
The NAB executives reportedly remained silent for 11 months before informing the ASIC regulator that the bank had $ 34.6 million for stinging violations.
Orr: Do you agree that the council should have intervened earlier?
Henry: (long pause) … I wish we could say it, I still do not know it …
Orr: I'd like you to answer my question, Dr. Henry. Do you agree that the council should have intervened earlier?
Henry: I answered the question, how could I answer it.
Orr: I'm sorry, is it a yes or no Dr. Henry?
Henry: I answered the question as I chose it.
Orr: I'd like you to answer my question. Do you agree that the council should have intervened earlier?
Henry: I would have liked it.
Orr: I'll take that for a yes, Dr. Henry
Henry: Well, you take it as a yes. well?
The Twitter posters also criticized Henry's honorary title of "doctor," @thehonestbank tweeting: "The fact that you have an RD in front of you does not mean that you are GOD. "Unfortunately, Ken Henry from NAB did not receive the memo."
Dr. Henry AC, Ph.D. in Economics and Companion of the Order of Australia for his work as an economist and the preservation of the habitat of the hairy womb, has threatened to interrupt Ms. Orr's interrogation .
"We went through the problem," he told Ms. Orr, to which we replied, "No, I'm sorry I did not think we did it."
Henry replied, "You do not do it?"
Orr: No.
Henry: (under the breath) No, you would not do it.
Ms. Orr questioned Henry about NAB's lack of formal documentation of non-compliance when it issued a violation notice for charging at least 12,000 customers $ 2 million in fees for any service.
Orr: Certainly somebody in your company at the time was wondering if that conduct was breaking the law and, if so, how was it breaking the law?
Henry: Yes.
Orr: Surely these are the questions that the risk manager should have brought to the risk committee?
Henry: "Maybe."
Orr: Back to the starting point, "maybe," Dr. Henry?
Henry: Yes, maybe.
Orr: And I'm afraid I still do not understand the reason for your hesitation?
Henry: I probably can not explain it to you.
At other times, Dr. Henry seemed to ignore Ms. Orr's questions. Asked about the huge bonuses distributed to bank executives, he began talking about the state of capitalism.
"The capitalist model wants companies to have no other responsibility than to maximize shareholder profits," he said. "Many people who have been involved in this debate over the last 12 months have said that all the things boards should be accountable for are that they focus on maximizing profits for shareholders. "
When Mrs. Orr had asked her if he had ever seen a document that she had shown him, Henry replied that he did not remember anymore.
"It does not really matter, is it?" He said before looking at Ms. Orr's fierce response and adding, "Maybe so."
Mr. Henry has worked as a tax advisor for the Liberal and Labor governments.
After working for former Prime Minister Paul Keating to successfully defeat opposition leader John Hewson's Fightback! During the 1993 GST election campaign, Henry worked for John Howard.
He then worked for Kevin Rudd, writing the 2010 Henry Tax Review, and then as special advisor to Premier Julia Gillard.
The Fairfax press criticized his performance at the Royal Commission with the Australian Financial Review, calling it "your deaf."
"Henry has sought to portray himself as a profound thinker … but in doing so he has blurred ideas about NAB's attitude to key issues of governance and customer service," writes the AFR.
Appointed NAB in 2011 as Executive Director and in 2015 as President, Mr. Henry was also a director of the Reserve Bank of Australia.
In 2016, Dr. Henry expressed his belief that the gap between big pay and average CEOs on average could not be wider.
He stated that he would work to align compensation with client results.
However, last year, the same day, the NAB announced a profit of $ 6.64 billion and announced the removal of 4,000 jobs in the banking sector.
And while Dr. Henry's goal is to cut wages very grossly, NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn could hit a record $ 10.76 million this year if he met his performance targets .
As president, Dr. Henry, from a modest background, grew up in Taree as the son of a lumberjack, himself earning $ 790,000 from NAB.
He is also remunerated as Director of Reconciliation Australia, ASX, Executive Chairman of the Institute of Public Policy at Australian National University and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the SMART Infrastructure Facility of the University of Wollongong.
Dr. Henry stated that his rural origins made him a pbadionate advocate, with him and his wife, Naomi, on the board of the Voiceless Animal Care Institute.
"There is little more noble research in life than giving voice to those who would otherwise suffer in silence," says Dr. Henry about his Voiceless profile.
But he is talking about his beloved wombat with a hairy nose, not his banking clients.
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