Australia needs a national bank a policy of peace through development

Australia can pursue a policy of peace through development with a new national development bank.

If Australia continues on its current path of confrontation, we face war - likely nuclear war.

But it's not too late to break free from the dictates of the Anglo-American warmongers.

The Citizens Party, formerly known as the Citizens Electoral Council (CEC), has advocated the idea of peace through development since our founding in the 1980s.

We were very happy when China adopted its own version of this idea with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China is now officially the world's largest creditor, helping finance water, power, and transportation projects worldwide. Over 140 countries have signed Memoranda of Understanding with China to participate in the BRI. And at the same time, China has built the largest high-speed railway network in the world - by far.

Why couldn't Australia do something like this? We could. We need to regain control of our credit and currency.

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 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 to control flooding, droughts, and wildfires
affordable housing
hospitals and healthcare facilities and equipment

Combined, these projects would create more than 1.5 million jobs in engineering, manufacturing, construction trades, surveying, metalworking, and other skilled and well-paid occupations.

Australia can build up its manufacturing and productive capacity and invest in science and technology to put Australia at the cutting edge.

And then, from a position of strength, we can extend credit to other nations to help with their development journey.

All of this can be done without raising taxes or borrowing overseas. It's been done before!

All that's needed is the political will to do it.

Our children's and grandchildren's future depends on it.

Please sign the petition now. It is a matter of the greatest urgency.

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.

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To pursue a policy of peace through development, Australia needs a national bank

PETITION

For national survival, Australia needs a national bank—now!