Australian Citizens Party Citizens Taking Responsibility

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Create a public post office bank!

To address the growing uncertainty over the financial system, in the face of rising inflation and interest rates, the increased risk of a domestic banking crisis because of our banks exposure to the property bubble, the increasing rate of bank branch closures and threat to viability of our postal service, the Citizens Party is spearheading a campaign to establish a public post office bank.

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29 August 2024 - LPO Group supports a Postal Bank - An Australian Postal Bank is gaining momentum with backing from the government! By supporting the Australian Postal Bank, we can secure the future of banking services for all Australians, no matter where they live.

28 August 2024 - The Australian Bridget Carter - Government-owned bank created out of Australia Post back on Labor’s agenda
A government-owned bank created out of Australia Post is understood to be back on the agenda, five years after then-Labor leader Bill Shorten indicated that it would be on the party’s to-do list if elected... Download PDF of article or Read more online (Note: article is behind paywall)

20 June 2024 - 6PR Radio - Oliver Peterson - Australian Citizens Party push for "People’s Bank" - Interview with Robert Barwick LIVE in the Perth Studio - The Australian Citizens Party is warning Australia Post is working to sabotage moves for a so-called “People’s Bank” run through the post office.

20 June 2024 - 6PR Radio - Oliver Peterson - Australian Citizens Party push for "People’s Bank" - Interview with Robert Barwick LIVE in the Perth Studio - The Australian Citizens Party is warning Australia Post is working to sabotage moves for a so-called “People’s Bank” run through the post office.

19 June 2024 - 3AW Radio - Tom Elliott - ‘Bite the bullet’: Tom Elliott’s idea to turn post offices into actual banks - Tom Elliott has given his idea this morning to turn post offices into actual banks, as more and more bank branches close across the country.

19 June 2024 - 3AW Radio - Tom Elliott - Australia Post backbone backs Tom Elliott's idea to turn post offices into actual banks - Interview with Angela Cramp - Executive Director of Licensed Post Office Group (features call in from Robert Barwick 26m - 36m26s

26 May 2024 - ABC Radio - Ian McNamara - Australia All Over

Macca talks to Dale Webster about Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport final report into Regional Bank Branch closures.

24 May 2024 - 6PR Radio - Oliver Peterson - Senate inquiry recommends opening of public banks after wave of closures - Interview with Robert Barwick
A Senate committee has recommended establishing a publicly owned bank and making the Banking Code of Conduct mandatory after the recent wave of bank closures across Australia.

24 May 2024 - PowerFM/ARN Regional SA Radio - Around SA with Chris Guscott - Senate Regional Banking Inquiry Passes Down Sweeping Recommendations


A wide range of sweeping recommendations to regional banking practices has been handed down this afternoon. The Senate Standing Committees on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport has finally released its report into the banks’ actions in regional Australia, with chair Matt Canavan suggesting a huge overhaul to the banks’ responsibilities and obligations in rural and regional areas.

13 May 2024 - 7NEWS Sunshine Coast - Dani Sharp - Commonwealth Bank has announced it's closing its Buderim Branch - Includes interview with Robert Barwick (ACP Research Director).

13 March 2024 - ABC 730 - Rhiannon Shine - Bank branches and ATMs keep closing - Includes coverage of ACP campaign and Robert Barwick (ACP Research Director).

Bank branches and ATMs keep closing. The latest announcement is from BankWest, which will close all its branches in Western Australia by the end of the year as part of a move to digital-only banking.

8 Mar 2023 - 3AW Radio - Tom Elliott - How an Australia Post ‘bank’ could change financial landscape - Interview with Robert Barwick


As part of that effort, the Citizens Party has drafted the Commonwealth Postal Savings Bank Bill, in coordination with Bob Katter MP, to establish a public post office “people's bank” similar to the way the original Commonwealth Bank started in post offices in 1912.

Importantly, the original Commonwealth Bank first proved its value as a public bank in the global financial panic of 1914, when it averted a “run” on all Australian banks by the actions of its Governor, Sir Denison Miller, who announced publicly that the Commonwealth Bank stood behind the deposits in all of the banks; consequently, the feared bank panic didn’t eventuate. (In London, which was the epicentre of the 1914 panic, the Commonwealth Bank’s London office was the only bank to remain open during the emergency.)

Like the Commonwealth Bank then, a new public post office bank will be able to guarantee deposits and provide financial services because it is owned by the government. Put simply, governments are far, far less likely to go bankrupt than private banking corporations are, so customers of public banks can have confidence that their deposits will always be honoured and they will have access to banking services.

Postal Savings Bank
Australia Post
Banking / Finance
Economy / Trade
Page last updated on 23 October 2024

Campaign Updates

24 Nov 2021
  By 18 December, flood the government’s Regional Banking Taskforce with submissions calling for a postal bank.
  • Postal Savings Bank
  • Australia Post
  • Banking / Finance
13 Jul 2021
All Australians must watch the Citizens Party’s latest Citizens Insight YouTube interview, with Licensed Post Office Group Executive Director Angela Cramp, called “The untold story of the Australia Post scandal”.
  • Australia Post
7 Jul 2021
In another victory for the grassroots campaign that exposed the real agenda behind Scott Morrison’s unlawful removal of Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate, two of the Big Four banks have recommitted to Australia Post banking services long-term.
  • Postal Savings Bank
  • Australia Post
3 Jul 2021
  • Postal Savings Bank
  • Banking / Finance
  • Australia Post
30 Jun 2021
The 28 June ABC Four Corners episode on Australia Post, “Post Mortem: The story behind the turmoil that’s engulfed Australia Post”, confirmed the privatisation agenda b
  • Australia Post
18 Jun 2021
James Shipton’s fate is what happens in Australia when even modest efforts to regulate threaten the major banks, illustrating the urgent need for a public bank alternative to break the monopoly of the Big Four.
  • APRA/ASIC/ACCC/AUSTRAC
  • Australia Post
16 Jun 2021
The Senate’s Australia Post inquiry report, tabled in Parliament yesterday (15 June), was the culmination of the amazing campaign to support Christine Holgate and the thousands of Licensed Post Offices (LPOs) she saved with her 2018 banking deal.
  • Postal Savings Bank
  • Banking / Finance
  • Australia Post
27 May 2021
The months of relentless campaigning for justice for Christine Holgate by licensed post offices (LPOs), the Citizens Party, and thousands of concerned Australians has culminated in a powerful and scathing
19 May 2021
To free community post offices from bad management and banks, and guarantee financial services in regional and abandoned communities, turn each post office into a branch of a people’s bank.
  • Postal Savings Bank
11 May 2021
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.
  • Postal Savings Bank
  • National Banking