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The best way to rein in the corrupt banking power of the Big Four is to re-establish a public alternative. Australia has not such a public bank since Paul Keating and John Howard privatised the Commonwealth Bank in 1996.
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An Australia Post ‘people’s bank’—a win-win solution for the nation
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Christine Holgate has now moved on from Australia Post, but the government and board must be held accountable, and AusPost must become a people’s bank. Read the 11 May 2021 Media Release - The Australia Post fight continues—time for a postal bank!
For many reasons it is now more urgent than ever that Australia Post expands into a public bank. For one, the parcels business that drove its recent profit growth is about to run into real competition—from Christine Holgate! Australia Post has a monopoly on letters, but it has to compete on parcels, which, until now, it has dominated. Christine Holgate is a brilliant problem-solver, as her management of Australia Post proved, so don’t be surprised if Australia Post starts to lose revenue to Global Express. Australia Post needs a business model that enables it to permanently supports its daily mail service obligation; around the world, many national postal carriers have solved this problem by combining postal services with financial services that fill a void left by profit-hungry private banks.
Christine Holgate applied this approach to Australia Post when she became CEO in 2017. She expanded the existing Bank@Post agency service with the private banks, and explored the possibility of an Australia Post bank. This is what brought her into conflict with the private banks and the government, however, which is evidenced by the secret 2019 Boston Consulting Group review of Australia Post that recommended against Australia Post becoming a bank. Bob Katter shared his suspicion to the 27 April Australia Post Senate hearing that the banks may have had a hand in Christine Holgate’s removal, as they only agreed to her 2018 banking deal out of fear she intended to start a postal bank: “That threat was there”, Katter said, “and the banks had to give into the threat and they didn’t like it.” The Bank@Post deal secured the viability of LPOs, but it’s at the mercy of the banks agreeing to renew it; if Australia Post expands into a public bank, Australians would flock to do their banking at post offices, which would permanently secure the viability of the LPOs so they wouldn’t be at the mercy of the private banks.
Other reasons for Australia Post to expand into a people’s bank include:
- the aggressive rate at which the private banks are closing their branches and ripping out ATMs because they just don’t care about the marginal profits they make from retail banking; and
- the need for a no-frills public retail bank that can guarantee banking services for all Australians, which would not be allowed to discriminate against lawful businesses through “de-banking”, and which would support the cash payments system that the private banks are trying to scrap so they can turn Australia into a cashless economy (Christine Holgate ensured the expanded Bank@Post service included a commitment to supporting cash, which is available at every post office).
A postal people’s bank is clearly both in Australia’s national interest, and is the long-term solution for Australia Post. For that reason, the Citizens Party has drafted legislation, called the Commonwealth Postal Savings Bank Bill, for introduction into Parliament in the near future, as part of a national banking system that includes a national infrastructure bank. But for this solution to work, the corruption exposed by the appalling treatment of Christine Holgate and the Senate inquiry must be cleaned out. The government and the Opposition won’t do it—it’s up to the citizens of Australia. We must continue to demand accountability for this political crime against Australia Post and its LPOs, starting with the replacement of the entire corrupted board with a restructured board without political hacks that includes one representative each from the LPOs and the Australia Post staff—the most significant stakeholders in Australia Post with the most to lose from bad management.
What YOU can do to make a difference in this campaign
Get these flyers out into your community. Click on the image to Download PDF for printing or attaching to email.
Some places you can take one or all of them or email them to:
- Local post offices
- Local Federal and State Members of Parliament
- Local Councils and Chambers of Commerce
- Union representatives
- Community leaders, clubs and organisations
- Local businesses, especially those operating in shopping strips or immediate proximity to their local post office or in areas that have lost their local bank/s
- Anyone who values and relies on their local post office, including banking services
Campaign Update
As a result of the pressure brought to bear on Australia's elected officials by concerned and active citizens, much of which has been generated by the Citizens Party's campaign, we have a fantastic breakthrough: 
the Senate has conducted an inquiry into Australia Post and the circumstances surrounding the ouster of Christine Holgate!
You can watch a video that covers the events that led to this Inquiry. Senate inquiry into Australia Post fiasco! A triumph of principle over politics
If you prefer a written summary, you can also read our 26 February media release: Massive breakthrough! Pauline Hanson forces Christine Holgate removal scandal to a Senate inquiry
The real agenda
On the eve of the Senate Inquiry, the Citizens Party uncovered new evidence showing the real agenda behind the ouster of Christine Holgate: the government has been preparing Australia Post for privatisation. Read our in-depth special report: Getting in the way—how Christine Holgate upset a $75 trillion privatisation agenda targeting Australia Post
We have created a 7-minute video that covers the key details of the privatisation plot. Exposed! The privatisation plot against Australia Post
The Senate Inquiry
The Senate Inquiry has definitely opened a can of worms for the government with Christine Holgate’s explosive submission and testimony to the Senate’s Australia Post inquiry confirming the Citizens Party’s original suspicion—the attack that drove her out of Australia Post saved the Big Four banks from her plans to establish a public postal bank. The submission confirms that the government commissioned the secret Boston Consulting Group report it has been hiding from Parliament not just to prepare Australia Post for full or partial privatisation, but to block any moves to turn Australia Post into its own bank.
You may have seen some of the coverage in the mainstream media with some coverage making the realisation that this has nothing to do with "bloody watches" and a lot more to do with Ms Holgate's steadfast opposition to any agenda to privatise Australia Post. 16 April 2021 - Citizens Report - Political earthquake! Christine Holgate goes to Canberra
As the political fallout continues it is clear that Scott Morrison doesn’t want to talk about the big issues Christine Holgate exposed in her powerful Senate testimony about his privatisation agenda for Australia Post, so he and his gang are trying to revive the original outrage over spending “taxpayers’ money” on Cartier watches.
However, they can’t stick to their story without lying, as we show in this short video Exposing the lies! The Morrison gang’s dishonest response to Christine Holgate
As a testament to the success of our campaign to save Australia Post from privatisation and to establish a postal savings bank, during the course of the public hearings, the Citizens Party has been mentioned twice by the two most disingenuous senators on the committee, committed to protecting their political party's positions over investigating the truth.
The Citizens Party is deeply offended by the smear of racism and anti-Semitism that two Senators hiding behind parliamentary privilege used to attack the Licensed Post Office Group through guilt by association in the 27 April 2021 Australia Post Senate hearing.
This was a vain, disgusting attempt to undermine the evidence given by both the Licensed Post Office Group and Christine Holgate, to shift the focus onto the Citizens Party. You can read our response to the Senators in our 28 April 2021 Media Release - Hypocritical Senators use privilege to smear courageous Australians.
See Below for the latest Media Releases and other content updates for this campaign.
Page last updated on 12 June 2021