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Lead Editorial
16 October 2024
Vol. 26 No. 12
Two political battlefield victories prove that if the population is effectively mobilised, politicians who are captive to external and vested interests can be directed down a different pathway.
The first victory, which reinforces hope that we can defeat the government’s misinformation and disinformation (MAD) bill which would censor truth at a time when open debate is critical, is the news that the Senate inquiry investigating the bill was swamped with over 15,000 submissions—in just one week! Congratulations! This is historic, and delivers a message that the government, and the Senators on whose vote the legislation depends, cannot ignore.
ACP activists push for a postal bank at Murwillumbah.
The other victory is that this week ANZ announced it would not close its Murwillumbah, NSW, bank branch as planned on 11 December, after the Citizens Party initiated a “Save our bank” campaign. The branch will remain open two days a week. Last week a crew of activists plastered the town with flyers and signs, receiving a heroes’ welcome. The ACP team decided to go ahead with a major rally planned for today (16 Oct.) despite the victory, because, as ACP activist Ian Willis told the Tweed Valley Weekly Times in today’s edition, “The main focus of the rally is Australia Post being repurposed into a community bank to service small business and local residents’ needs”.
ACP Qld State Secretary Jan Pukallus told the paper that “the proven solution to stop bank closures nationwide is to create an Aussie post office people’s bank like the old Commonwealth Bank was for 84 years before it was privatised; and then keep it.” At least a dozen ACP activists were joined by over 30 revved up locals, many convinced the bank closure reprieve is only temporary.
The win follows the government’s leaked announcement in the 28 August Australian that a “Government-owned bank created out of Australia Post [is] back on Labor’s agenda”. On 9 October Independent Senator Gerard Rennick demanded that the government respond to the final report of the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee on bank closures in regional Australia. Interestingly, government Senator Anothony Chisholm replied, “The Albanese government understands the important role cash plays in our economy and is committed to ensuring Australians have continued and reliable access to cash.” But he then went on to show his complete lack of knowledge of the matter by referring to the failed Australian Banking Association Code of Practice that resulted from the Regional Banking Taskforce. That taskforce—which greenlighted a mammoth wave of bank closures—was the reason for the RARAT committee’s investigation! As The Regional editor Dale Webster tweeted in response: “Hey @AnthonyChisholm, you have just shown how out of touch you are with the regional bank closure issue. The protocol you cited was the TRIGGER for the 92 closures that led to the senate inquiry your government is yet to respond to.”
Senator Rennick will continue to press for the recommendations of the RARAT inquiry to be fulfilled, lasering in on the expert panel to examine the prospect of a public post office bank.
These breakthroughs come as Labor is clearly positioning itself for the coming election. The public bank is a sign of that, as is the other leak, that the government is modelling a wind-back of negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts for property investors, to relieve upward pressure on housing prices. Yet another is 9 October legislation introduced to rule out future privatisation of the National Broadband Network (NBN)—to keep it “owned by the Australian people”, an Albanese government media release stated.
It requires informed political statecraft, but the people can make the government they elected do their bidding. Right now avoiding thermonuclear World War III hinges on nations mobilising themselves to draw upon the best tendencies of our common humanity to do just that. See “Shake your chains to earth like dew” (back page) for an insight into how we can make that happen.
In this issue:
- Memo to the Australian Greens: If you don’t stop Albanese’s MAD bill, you will be censored
- Rushed hearing reveals little about Albanese’s MAD bill
- Dangerous registers: The folly of Journalism Australia
- Ask Mark Dreyfus: Pardon Australian hero David McBride
- Failed TFF a success, says RBA
- From big shots to ‘finance rats’: How bankers have fallen in China
- Offering up the high priests at the journalistic alter?
- With China’s exemplary fight against desertification, ‘trees are forcing sand to retreat’
- Atrocity Inc.: Israel’s lies to justify genocide exposed
- The worse the legislation, the more active are the public!
- Shake your chains to earth like dew
- INSERT: Who are the Australian Citizens Party and what have they ever done for you?
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