Sign the Petition:
Australia urgently needs a public post office bank - a ‘people’s bank’
The Big Four banks and credit card companies have declared war on cash. It's time for the people to push back.
The campaign against cash has been raging for years.
The big banks used their mouthpieces in Parliament to try to pass legislation that would have banned cash transactions over $10,000. The Citizens Party and our allies mobilized to stop it - and we succeeded. The legislation was dumped in 2020.
But the banks' insatiable drive for dominance was not stopped.
These power-hungry financial institutions have been aggressively shutting down bank branches, ripping out ATMs all over the country, and even telling some of their branches not to accept cash deposits!
They're trying to make cash either unattainable or unusable.
The Citizens Party has put the spotlight on the unjust and outrageous epidemic of bank branch closures.
The Senate is now holding an investigation into regional bank branch closures, with hearings in different cities nationwide. They have called upon the banks to stop shuttering branches for the duration of the inquiry. Some of the banks have agreed, and the pace of closures has been slowed - but not stopped.
That's good, but it's not enough.
The best - and ONLY way - to rein in the corrupt power of the Big Four banks is to re-establish a public alternative. Australia has not had such a public bank since Paul Keating and John Howard privatised the Commonwealth Bank in 1996.
The Citizens Party’s proposed public post office bank will force the banks to compete in retail services and restore banking services to every community in Australia.
For more than a decade, numerous organisations and experts have called for an Australian public post office bank to provide a secure alternative to the private banking system.
Australians and the Australian economy are straining under the yoke of a private banking oligopoly which:
-
starves small businesses and industry of credit while concentrating its lending in the housing bubble that prices young families out of buying an affordable home;
-
maximises profits by preying on bank customers to extract wealth through asset-stripping;
-
withdraws banking services from whole communities through aggressive branch closures to maximise its profits;
-
denies banking services to anyone it doesn’t like, especially small businesses that are competitors to the banking system, making it impossible for them to function in the economy;
-
is pushing to eliminate cash entirely, in order to lock Australians into banks and force us to transact electronically so the banks can trace our economic activities; and
-
corrupts the political system through its enormous lobbying power, enabling it to always block any attempt to seriously reform the banking system.
A public post office bank would cure each and every one of these evils.
Please sign the petition now. This is a matter of the greatest urgency.
Petition Summary
We call upon the Australian government to:
Immediately establish a national postal bank—a new “people’s bank” like the original Commonwealth Bank—to operate through Australia Post’s thousands of post offices; and a national development bank to invest in infrastructure and productive industries.
(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
The campaign against cash has been raging for years.
The big banks used their mouthpieces in Parliament to try to pass legislation that would have banned cash transactions over $10,000. The Citizens Party and our allies mobilized to stop it - and we succeeded. The legislation was dumped in 2020.
But the banks' insatiable drive for dominance was not stopped.
These power-hungry financial institutions have been aggressively shutting down bank branches, ripping out ATMs all over the country, and even telling some of their branches not to accept cash deposits!
They're trying to make cash either unattainable or unusable.
The Citizens Party has put the spotlight on the unjust and outrageous epidemic of bank branch closures.
The Senate is now holding an investigation into regional bank branch closures, with hearings in different cities nationwide. They have called upon the banks to stop shuttering branches for the duration of the inquiry. Some of the banks have agreed, and the pace of closures has been slowed - but not stopped.
That's good, but it's not enough.
The best - and ONLY way - to rein in the corrupt power of the Big Four banks is to re-establish a public alternative. Australia has not had such a public bank since Paul Keating and John Howard privatised the Commonwealth Bank in 1996.
The Citizens Party’s proposed public post office bank will force the banks to compete in retail services and restore banking services to every community in Australia.
For more than a decade, numerous organisations and experts have called for an Australian public post office bank to provide a secure alternative to the private banking system.
Australians and the Australian economy are straining under the yoke of a private banking oligopoly which:
-
starves small businesses and industry of credit while concentrating its lending in the housing bubble that prices young families out of buying an affordable home;
-
maximises profits by preying on bank customers to extract wealth through asset-stripping;
-
withdraws banking services from whole communities through aggressive branch closures to maximise its profits;
-
denies banking services to anyone it doesn’t like, especially small businesses that are competitors to the banking system, making it impossible for them to function in the economy;
-
is pushing to eliminate cash entirely, in order to lock Australians into banks and force us to transact electronically so the banks can trace our economic activities; and
-
corrupts the political system through its enormous lobbying power, enabling it to always block any attempt to seriously reform the banking system.
A public post office bank would cure each and every one of these evils.
Please sign the petition now. This is a matter of the greatest urgency.
PETITION
An Australia Post ‘people’s bank’—a win-win solution for the nation
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’s financial system is dominated by a private banking oligopoly that pursues maximum profit at the expense of customers, the community and ethical standards.
The major banks have focussed their lending on mortgages, which has inflated house prices to unaffordable levels, while starving small business, farming and manufacturing of credit. In recent years they have shut hundreds of branches and ripped out hundreds more ATMs in rural and regional Australia and low-income suburbs of the major cities, accelerating the economic decline of many communities. And they have abused their market power to reduce the use and availability of cash and cheques and to deny customers banking services through “debanking”.
Australia needs an alternative, public banking system that provides financial services to all communities and invests in the nation’s future.
We therefore ask the House to immediately establish:
-
a national postal bank—a new “people’s bank” like the original Commonwealth Bank—to operate through Australia Post’s thousands of post offices; and
-
a national development bank to invest in infrastructure and productive industries.
A national postal bank would restore retail financial services to all communities, fully guarantee savings deposits, lend carefully but fairly, maintain cash payments, not discriminate through debanking, and invest surplus deposits in the national development bank to fund job-creating infrastructure and industries.
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.