Bank Australia is the only panel lender that publishes an exclusion list.
Seven industries Bank Australia refuses to lend to — regardless of file strength. If your income source is on the list, you can't bank with them. If it isn't, you get a customer-owned bank with a 1% clean-energy rate discount that's worth real money. The exclusion list is the structural buying-or-walking-away argument; everything else is consequence.
The exclusion list · seven industries
Seven income sources Bank Australia refuses.
No other Australian retail bank publishes a comparable list. Westpac quietly exited certain coal financing in 2020 but doesn't publish it as policy. Bank Australia is explicit: these industries are excluded from lending policy, and the exclusion applies to the borrower's income source, not the property location. A coal-mine engineer can't get a Bank Australia home loan even if buying in Sydney.
Fossil fuels
Coal, oil, gas — extraction, production, transport, and refining. The most consequential exclusion by number of Australian borrowers affected.
Gambling
Casinos, online gambling, poker venues, lottery operators. Applies to ownership and direct employment in gambling-licensed operations.
Tobacco
Tobacco growers, manufacturers, importers. Doesn't extend to retail tobacco sales (a newsagent isn't excluded).
Weapons manufacturers
Companies producing weapons or components for military or civilian arms. Doesn't include Australian Defence Force personnel.
Intensive animal farming
Industrial-scale piggery, broiler chicken farming, feedlot beef operations. Free-range and small-scale farms aren't excluded.
Live animal export
The export trade itself + companies whose primary business is live-animal logistics for export markets.
Native forest logging
Logging operations in native forests. Plantation timber + sustainable-managed forestry isn't excluded.
The exclusion is at the borrower's income source, not the property. Buying a property near a coal mine doesn't disqualify the file. Working for a coal mining company does. For Big 4 staff in any of these industries, Bank Australia is structurally not the lender — go to Macquarie, ING, or a Big 4. For everyone else, the next section is where Bank Australia is worth the conversation.
The 1% discount for 5 years on properties with eligible green features.
Bank Australia's Clean Energy Home Loan applies a 1.00% rate discount for 5 years on the standard variable rate when the property has eligible features: solar PV (minimum 5kW), battery storage (Tesla / Sungrow / similar), 7-star+ NatHERS rating, or electric-vehicle charging infrastructure pre-installed.
On a $650k loan that's:
Standard Bank Australia variable (80% LVR): 6.04% Clean Energy Home Loan (5yr discount): 5.04% Discount magnitude: 1.00% Annual interest saved on $650k: $6,500 Over the 5-year discount window: $32,500
After year 5 the loan reverts to standard variable. If the property is sold or refinanced before year 5, no claw-back. The discount is unconditional once the file settles with verified clean-energy features.
This is one of the few green-loan products on the panel that actually changes the cost-of-borrowing math (most "green loans" elsewhere offer a 0.10-0.25% discount that's eaten by the documentation overhead). At 1.00% Bank Australia is in genuinely cheaper territory than Big 4 packaged rates for the borrower whose property qualifies.
Where Bank Australia lands cleanly
- Borrower outside the 7 excluded industries with strong PAYG or full-doc SE income.
- Property with eligible clean-energy features (solar, battery, 7-star NatHERS) — the 1.00% discount is genuine money.
- Values-aligned borrowers who care that their loan capital isn't financing fossil fuel extraction.
- Owner-occupier files at 80% LVR or below — Bank Australia's pricing is most competitive in this band.
- Refinancing into a clean-energy property — the discount applies to refinance as well as purchase.
Where Bank Australia doesn't fit
- Income from any of the 7 excluded industries. Outright decline. Go to Macquarie / ING / Big 4.
- SMSF lending. Not in policy. AMP Bank or La Trobe Financial are the doors.
- Specialist / near-prime files. Bank Australia underwrites at prime tier; for credit-impaired files Pepper Money is the door.
- 1-year self-employed. Requires 2 full years of lodged tax returns. ING accepts 1-year SE at prime.
- Property with no clean-energy features — Bank Australia's standard variable rate is mid-pack for customer-owned banks (similar to Heritage and Bendigo). The buying argument fades without the Clean Energy discount.
Want Bank Australia's number on your file?
The borrowing-capacity calculator runs your shape against every active lender — Bank Australia included, with the Clean Energy Home Loan tier flagged where the property is likely eligible. No email gate before you see the number.
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