Sign the Petition:
Australia needs a national bank to fund water, power, and transportation projects
With a new national development bank, Australia can build projects to prevent devastating flooding and make vast areas of our territory drought-proof.
And that's just the beginning.
More dams need to be built. Many existing dams need to have their levels raised. Levees to protect our towns and cities are common-sense measures that in many cases have long ago been designed and proposed - but never built, due to "a lack of funding."
It's time to end the frustrating bickering about how to finance such projects.
The answer lies in Australia's history: a national development bank modeled on the original Commonwealth Bank that was created by the Australian government in 1911. That bank was conceived as a people's bank, and it was instrumental in the astonishing rise of Australian manufacturing during World War II.
The original Commonwealth Bank worked brilliantly until it was taken down and privatized. The Big Four banks didn't like the competition.
By creating a new national infrastructure and development bank, Australia could simultaneously build dozens of huge infrastructure projects today, projects that are urgently needed, long overdue, and in many cases designed and ready to go:
- thousands of miles of high-speed rail;
- large scale water projects like the Bradfield Scheme
- electricity generating capacity
- hospitals and health-care facilities and equipment
Combined, these projects would create more than 1.5 million jobs in engineering, manufacturing, construction trades, surveying, metalworking, and more.
Australia can build up its manufacturing and productive capacity, and invest in science and technology to put Australia at the cutting edge.
All of this can be done without raising taxes or borrowing overseas. It was done before.
All that's needed is the political will to do it.
The Australian Citizens Party is leading the fight to recreate a 'People's Bank', that would invest on the basis of promoting the Commonwealth, rather than simply increasing short-term profits on whatever risky speculation seems to hold the highest rate of return.
Please sign the petition now. It is a matter of the greatest urgency.
Petition Summary
We call upon the Australian government to:
Immediately establish a national bank to finance an emergency economic mobilisation without borrowing from overseas, just as the original Commonwealth Bank, the “People’s Bank”, provided the credit for Australia’s miraculous WWII mobilisation that transformed the economy into a productive powerhouse.
(Click here to read the full text of petition)
“If the Government of the Commonwealth deliberately excluded itself from all participation in the making or changing of monetary policy it cannot govern except in a secondary degree.”
John Curtin
Australian Prime Minister 1941-1945
PETITION
For national survival, Australia needs a national bank—now!
TO THE HONOURABLE SPEAKER AND MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
This petition of concerned Australians draws to the attention of the House that:
Australia is in a national emergency, facing the combined crisis of a public health threat and economic collapse.
The economic crisis however is not primarily due to the coronavirus pandemic, but to decades of economic policies that dismantled Australia’s industrial capacity and infrastructure, including and especially healthcare, while inflating a bubble in financial services and real estate.
Australia has become extremely dependent on foreign capital and foreign imports, leading to the highest levels of foreign debt and household debt in its history.
The economic crisis was therefore inevitable; its cause is the same reason Australia is ill-equipped to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
For national survival, this economic situation must be turned around, fast.
We therefore ask the House to:
Immediately establish a national bank to finance an emergency economic mobilisation without borrowing from overseas, just as the original Commonwealth Bank, the “People’s Bank”, provided the credit for Australia’s miraculous WWII mobilisation that transformed the economy into a productive powerhouse.
A national bank would:
- harness and direct public credit into long-term nation-building infrastructure projects and a massive expansion of productive industries, especially, immediately, in the production of healthcare supplies and equipment;
- be a vehicle for Australians, including superannuation funds, to invest in the nation’s economic development for a guaranteed long-term return;
- support the financial system that serves the real economy, not financial speculation;
- restore public confidence.
Website: https://citizensparty.org.au Phone: 1800 636 432 Email: info@citizensparty.org.au Postal Address: PO Box 376, Coburg, Vic 3058
Authorised by Craig Isherwood, Citizens Party, Melbourne.