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Prime Minister overturns Labor bank ‘raid’

AAP

AAP

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has vowed to end Labor’s “smash and grab” raid on unused bank accounts.

Speaking to media, the PM said he would reverse a rule made by the previous government to allow the government to seize funds in unused bank accounts after three years, rather than the seven years that was the previous standard.

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Under Mr Abbott’s plan the government will once again only be allowed to seize the money after seven years of inactivity.

More than $550 million has been funnelled into government coffers since 2013, eclipsing the $330 million netted between 1959 and 2012, when idle accounts could be touched only after seven years.

The Prime Minister told Radio 2SM on Wednesday that the government would end Labor’s three-year rule on the accounts: “As of this year, it won’t happen any more.”

Nationals MP Andrew Broad cited the case of a farmer who had $120,000 in a bank account seized because it was untouched.

“This put huge pressure on him because he was going to use that to put a crop in,” he told reporters in Canberra.

– with AAP

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