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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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 21 June 2024

Campaign Updates

30 Apr 2021
Victorian National Party Senator Bridget McKenzie deserves enormous praise and community gratitude for her fearless and powerful defence of stood-down Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate and the longsuffering small business licensed post offices (LPOs) fighting to get her reinstated.
28 Apr 2021
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 yesterday
21 Apr 2021
Christine Holgate’s explosive submission and testimony to the Senate’s Australia Post inquiry confirms 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.
13 Apr 2021
The Prime Minister is so terrified of the implications from the Senate’s inquiry into the unlawful removal of Christine Holgate that he has resorted to a brazen attempt to corrupt the process.
7 Apr 2021
Stood-down Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate has never spoken to the media, but now she has made an explosive 150-page submission to the Senate Environment and Communications Committee’s inquiry into her removal.
1 Apr 2021
Please sign and share the new Change.org petition: “PM Morrison—apologise to Christine Holgate and reinstate her as CEO of Australia Post”.
10 Mar 2021
Privatisers eyeing off a $5-10 billion theft of Australia Post, and $75 trillion in other public assets globally, are the other vested interest behind the removal of Christine Holgate over $20,000 worth of Cartier watches.
14 Jul 2020
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