Labor is ramping up pressure on Liberal National party backbencher George Christensen to vote for a banking royal commission while Barnaby Joyce is fighting a byelection.
Tanya Plibersek, the acting leader of the opposition, spoke during Tuesday’s visit to Mackay in Queensland – the middle of Christensen’s electorate. She said Christensen had previously called for a banking royal commission, so he should vote for one if it came to the floor of parliament next month, given the numbers would be in his favour while Joyce was not present.
The Turnbull government is scrambling to stabilise its backbench after a report emerged that three Coalition MPs are considering breaking ranks with the government in a new push to establish a royal commission into the banks.
Liberal MP Warren Entsch has dismissed the claim he is considering crossing the floor if the government does not honour its promise to investigate specific allegations of bad bank behaviour.
Liberal MP Ann Sudmalis has also dismissed the claim she is considering crossing the floor.
“A political stunt like that would not deliver results for the people that elected me, or for the people that have issues with banks,” a spokesman for Sudmalis told Guardian Australia. “Headlines reporting that I’m considering crossing the floor are untrue.”
Entsch, who will be returning to parliament from his secondment with the United Nations in time for the final sitting week in November, said he had “no reason to consider” crossing the floor.
He said he believed the treasurer, Scott Morrison, was still working on a mechanism to deal with historical cases of bad bank behaviour. He said Morrison was aware of examples of banks waiting out illnesses until their fatal conclusion to avoid paying insurance claims.
“I have been reassured they are working on that, those mechanisms, and I am just waiting on an outcome,” Entsch said from New York. “I have no reason to consider crossing the floor. I am hoping, and I am confident, that the treasurer will work with us to make this happen and deal with these cases.”
A spokesman for Morrison said: “The matters raised by Mr Entsch are still being worked on by the treasurer and minister for revenue and financial services.”
When Joyce was ruled ineligible by the high court last week, it raised the question of whether backbenchers would seize the opportunity to push through a banking royal commission.
Christensen was contacted on Friday, but refused to comment. He has previously called for a banking royal commission, which is not Turnbull government policy, saying it is what his community wants. But sources close to the Queensland MP said they believed his respect for Barnaby Joyce would prevent him from acting on the government’s weakness.
SA-Best (formerly Nick Xenophon Team) MP Rebekha Sharkie – a crossbencher in the house of representatives – said she would vote for a bank royal commission because misconduct in the sector “is an issue we would like to see addressed”.
Responding to comments from acting the prime minister, Julie Bishop, that a royal commission would take years, Sharkie said if a “royal commission was important enough to undertake for union corruption … then it’s just as important to shine a light on the banks and insurance industry”.
Sharkie noted Christensen had publicly supported a motion calling for a royal commission in past, but said “you never can tell until after the bells have finished ringing” how MPs would vote.
