Mr TANNER(10.39 p.m.) —I wish to raise this evening a matter concerning a constituent of mine, a Mr Brian Leehy, who is the principal of a company called PCS International Pty Ltd and the unfortunate dealings that his company has had with the National Australia Bank. In 1992, PCS obtained the contract for movement of fresh food produce on behalf of a company called Oz Fresh Produce (Australia) Pty Ltd operating in Werribee. PCS sought a credit reference from the Block Credit Reporting Agency and a banker's opinion from the National Australia Bank. The latter was sought in August 1992. The National Australia Bank denies that it was sought this early.

The Block credit report was received by PCS on 15 September of that year. The report mentioned that the managing director of Oz Fresh, Mr Robert Thompson, had previously worked for the National Australia Bank for 26 years, including some time at the western branch where the Oz Fresh account was held. The National Australia Bank points out that there was some substantial gap in employment between the time Mr Thompson was with the National Australia Bank and the time he was with Oz Fresh.

By this time, Mr Leehy became concerned at the fact that he had still received no response from the bank to his credit inquiry, several weeks having gone by. Through his own bank, the Commonwealth Bank at Yarraville, he pressed for a quick reply. On 18 September, PCS presented an Oz Fresh cheque to the National Australia Bank for $20,000 which was later returned by the bank with the annotation `present again on 29 September'. Mr Leehy then notified Oz Fresh that PCS would no longer do business with them, having incurred very substantial costs by undertaking freight tasks for Oz Fresh without having yet received payment for them.

On 2 October, the National Australia Bank advised that the cheque would be paid in seven days, which the bank now denies, and finally provided the credit opinion to Mr Leehy. On the same day, a stop was placed on the cheque. Mr Leehy was not notified of this until 9 October, the day when payment had been promised.

On 7 October, receivers were appointed to take over the management of Oz Fresh. National Australia Bank says that the payee would not be told in advance when payment on a cheque is stopped but would only be told on presentation. As a result of these events, Mr Leehy's company has gone into insolvency. In effect, Mr Leehy as a small business person has lost everything and is, to the best of my knowledge, still unemployed.

He advises me that the former freight forwarders used by Oz Fresh were a company called International Trade Management, which he worked for previously. He states that this company was previously owned by the National Australia Bank and that it was introduced to Oz Fresh by the National Australia Bank. He also states that the bank was the major creditor involved in the winding up of Oz Fresh, which was recently completed.

These facts are rather disturbing on the face of them. I have raised them with the bank on behalf of Mr Leehy and have not received any satisfactory response. At the very least, there is a distinct appearance that the bank, in order to protect its own financial interests with respect to the difficulties that Oz Fresh was encountering, was less than open and less than frank in its dealings with Mr Leehy, who clearly was very concerned about the possibility that the Oz Fresh company's difficulties might end him up in the situation where he has indeed found himself.

Theoretically, he could take legal proceedings against the National Australia Bank with respect to the advice that he has been given—probably under the old Hedley Byrne v. Heller principle—but, of course, he is in no position to do so because the outcome of such proceedings would not be guaranteed and they would also require very substantial sums of money to be risked. The correspondence I have had with the National Australia Bank has produced replies that I do not think fully explain the position. There is at least a strong perception that the bank has acted in a less than satisfactory way in dealing with this situation.

I call on the National Australia Bank in the chamber tonight to look at this situation again and to review its whole involvement in this affair and the intertwining sets of relationships, particularly the close relationship between the bank and Oz Fresh, which may have led to it acting in a way which has been to the detriment of my constituent, Mr Leehy, and to finally give him some fair treatment to recover from the situation in which he has found himself.