Need to Establish an Australian National Bank

The current situation in Australia where our banking services are being reduced in many communities and the international connections to so many of our banks and financial institutions; we need to undo a very bad decision that saw the removal of our nationally owned bank – The Commonwealth Bank. The economic control on Australia’s financial market by international shareholders of our financial institutions is preventing Australia from any degree of financial independence.

We Need To Again Be Australia For Australians

Not only are most of our Australian financial institutions involved in various international financial and other institutions, but it may be very difficult to trace the controlling decision-makers. We have seen an Australian Financial Enquiry that saw very little change and no one was punished for the many illegal actions proven to be carried out. To be able to make housing and costs-of-living come close to being affordable for the low-income earners without having subsidies for almost every expense, we must have Australians intentionally managing our financial institutions so that real value is placed back into our currency.

Our financial institutions have used their actuaries to convince our political leaders to sell off all manner of formerly government-owned assets, both Federal and State. Even the Competition Commissioner will not rule that amalgamations of various organisations will reduce competition. Our free trade agreements and our Foreign Investment Review Board seem to have the interest of other nations above that of Australia; this cannot continue if Australia desires to regain any degree of independence.

The mix of financial institutions and former Government utilities has been a receipt for huge profits. Most profits leave Australia due to the international share-holdings with-in the financial institutions – and adds to increased charges for the use of all the utilities that were formerly government-owned.

How to make this a long term correction?

There needs to be a constitutional amendment that will prevent governments at all levels from selling government assets without the approval of their communities. Trust in government must be again re-established within the communities due to the extremely poor performance on the trust levels of government over recent decades. The ease with which a government will off-load public utilities is appalling and must be prevented from happening. Various governments always claim that things will be better for all Australians if we “privatise” the utility; however, that is virtually never the case. The claimed purpose of selling government assets is to raise money for some immediate program; yet an excellent program in the past, thatof Government Bonds, to fund all manner of government programs, has been overlooked. This program includes the construction of Government infrustructure and needs to be re-introduced. The selling of government bonds is an excellent way to raise funds to either fund programs or to build assets. With a government-owned bank sponsoring the bonds, there is less wastage on the sale of those bonds.

What is a government bond?

Essentially a government bond is a loan to a government for a fixed term and usually a fixed interest rate that pays dividends, usually monthly, and the principal is repaid at maturity. Such bonds can be traded on the stock market as has been done in the past. If the bonds are limited to Australians, there is zero reduction of Australian ownership of any of the asset. In the past the government has used lotteries to raise the funds for the interest payments, such as the Sydney Opra House. When these assets are sold, there are other ways that revenue can be raised to pay the dividends. If the bonds were sponsored by a government owned bank, then the income from the bank could be used to pay, or offset, the interest to create a pool to repay the principal at maturity.

Establishing a network of banking outlets:

While Australia Post has often been a target of potential privatization, it is currently still government-owned with over 4,000 outlets that having significant coverage across the whole of Australia. Banking facilities have been set up within the Australia Post network. Many of the outlets are under a contractual arrangement where a private compatible business is contractedto provide the services of Australia Post; as such many would be able to expand their services to be a part of the Australian Government banking system. If this could happen there would be wide-spread coverage of a new government banking enterprise. A well-managed Government banking service should cause an overall downward pressure on the cost of housing loans, easing the cost of housing slightly. Many other requirements would be needed to make a significant impact on the cost of housing.

All this is highly possible as well as having some restriction placed on the foreign ownership of financial enterprises and other businesses, and the ownership of Australian real estate being brought back to Australians. This will give Australians greater freedom to assist the Australian economy, and would be to Australia’s great advantage, instead of how we currently support other nations through our regular daily and yearly purchases.