Australia's five largest banks are prepared to launch a mining tax-style ad campaign to fight the Turnbull government's $6.2 billion new tax, with Bankers' Association chief Anna Bligh accusing the government of playing "fast and loose" with Australia's financial system.
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Ms Bligh said Treasury officials were unable to provide key details of how the new tax would work and that the big banks were concerned they may end up paying much more than $6.2 billion over four years.
Speaking after banking representatives met Treasury officials in Canberra on Thursday to discuss the new tax, Ms Bligh suggested the measure may have been "cooked up" in the Treasurer's office and put in to the budget as recently as last week.
But Treasurer Scott Morrison hit back at suggestions Treasury officials had not yet worked through how the $6.2 billion would be collected and said the banks had turned up and asked: "Could we pay less tax?"
Ms Bligh, the former Queensland Labor premier, who has faced criticism from her own side for taking on the new role, said the big banks would see draft legislation to establish the tax as soon as next Wednesday.
This was, she said, "indecent haste" and she urged the Senate crossbench to closely scrutinise the proposed law and potentially delaying its July 1 introduction.
"This bill, this policy, this tax, it has been done on the run," she said.
"Treasury was unable to confirm on the basis on how they determined to $6.2 billion estimate of the revenue of this tax. In the face of that, the inability to explain that, of course the banks are worried that this may end up taking more revenue from them."
"Australians must ask themselves today, where was this policy cooked up? If it was not finely calibrated by Treasury officers with fine details, the kind of detail you expect when you put a tax on the single part of the economy, then where was it cooked up?"
Asked if the banks would launch a mining tax-style ad campaign, Ms Bligh said: "The banks will reserve the right to continue to prosecute this issue in a number of ways.
Mr Morrison told Sky News that levies and taxes that were particular to major banks were a feature of economies around the world.
"Our large banks … they have about a 20-basis-point advantage in the system effectively because of where they sit in the Australian financial system and the effective, implicit guarantee that they get from taxpayers," he said.
The question of whether the tax would apply to transactions between the big five and the Reserve Bank was still be discussed, Mr Morrison said.
The new tax is designed to target Australia's five largest banks - Westpac, ANZ, NAB, Commonwealth and the Macquarie Group - with a 0.06-percentage-point levy on the money the big banks borrow to fund their lending. The measure excludes deposits of less than $250,000.
Mr Morrison has demanded the banks "pony up" and do their part for budget repair on Wednesday, while warning them not to hit households by passing on higher costs to home owners or shareholders.
"They already don't like you very much. Prove them wrong. Don't confirm their worst impressions. Tell them another story. Tell them you will pony up and help fix the budget," Mr Morrison told the banks during his post-budget National Press Club address.
He highlighted the $30 billion in annual profits the big four recently announced and said they should absorb the cost of the new levy.
Labor has indicated it will vote for the new tax. Ms Bligh said she had spoken to shadow treasurer Chris Bowen about it and that she would be speaking to Bill Shorten and the crossbench in the coming days.
Ms Bligh's role in defending the banks has been met with rumblings from Labor colleagues, who remember the former Queensland premier as a left factional warrior.
Former treasurer Wayne Swan said it was strange to hear Ms Bligh argue against the banking industry pay a levy and said he found it "disappointing" when she took the job.
Her former education minister, Rod Welford, took to social media to describe Ms Bligh as a "traitor" who had transitioned from a "Labor advocate for working families to apologist for the establishment".
