Don’t let them kill off Aussie Post!

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Lead Editorial

9 December 2020
Vol. 22. No. 49

This year Australian citizens defeated the government’s attempt to ban large cash transactions (p. 3) and exposed the globally-dictated bankers’ plan to steal depositors’ money to save the financial system. While Senator Malcolm Roberts’ elegant amendment to exclude deposits from bail-in did not succeed, due to the Labor Party defending the monstrosity it helped introduce, the public’s calls and emails impelled the crossbench and rebel Liberals to force the government to negotiate. As a result, the government has proposed its own amendments to the bail-in bill—to explicitly exclude deposits—to which the crossbench, and we, will hold it!

Bringing the population into the process of governing, as shown by the cash ban defeat, is a powerful and effective tool. Now, we really put this principle to work: While the enemy is pinned back on bail-in, we are going on the offensive—to not only save Australia Post from privatisation and demolition, but to ensure its future and the future of the communities it serves by creating an Australia Post “people’s bank”!

We have made it known to the parliament that the bipartisan “assassination plot” against Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate never had anything to do with Cartier watches. In fact, her $20,000 expenditure—approved by the Chair—was a conservative reward for a deal that not only saved over 3,000 family-owned licensed post offices (LPOs), but earned the taxpayer $20 million! (No taxpayer money was spent—Australia Post operates commercially and does not receive any taxpayer dollars. For the watches Holgate paid 0.001 per cent equivalent of the earnings of a deal that forced the big banks to pay for services being provided scot-free by hard-working Australian families running local post offices, while banks shut down branches and raked in obscene profits.)

The corporatisation of Australia Post in the late 1980s continued the neoliberal trend of outsourcing or privatising critical government functions and was always going to end in disaster. The Boston Consulting Group review of AP, commissioned by the government late last year, has been carefully concealed to hide the true intentions for the postal service, understood to be full privatisation.

According to the LPOs, Christine Holgate’s smart management and negotiating skills saved Australia Post from a premature demise. If she is not reinstated, LPO families who each invested an average of $1.2 million of their own money, will be left out to dry. They fear bankruptcy, which if it happens will force the government to spend actual taxpayers’ money to bail out Australia Post—up to the collective $3 billion invested by LPOs—as by law Australia Post is required to maintain those post offices.

Members of Parliament are being impacted by the outrage at this, including from the excellent organising efforts by the Licensed Post Office Group (LPOG). Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce did an abrupt about-turn in the parliament on 2 December, after meeting with LPOs, admitting he was wrong to condemn Holgate, and acknowledging her crucial role in keeping mail and banking services going in rural and regional areas. Bob Katter on 9 December made a forceful statement in Parliament calling for Holgate to be reinstated, supporting the call of the LPOG, and for the current board to be replaced by non-political appointees, including representatives from licensed post offices and Australia Post employees.

This is a fight we can win! A broad cross-section of MPs and citizens already see an Australia Post bank as a win-win solution—the reality of the global financial crisis will drive support that can overwhelm any opposition.

In this week's issue:

• Victory! Parliament dumps cash ban bill
• The science of carbon dioxide—the gas of life
• Spectre of Diana returns to threaten Crown
• ‘Global Britain’s’ Empire II plan to surround China
• UK gov blocks inquiry into Finucane murder, pushes bill that would make it legal
• Negative rate black hole will suck in Australia, impact cash
• US bank regulator proposes ban on debanking
• Xinjiang: Xinjiang becomes a target
• Did Iranian scientist’s assassination also target Biden?
• Cash ban unceremoniously dumped—congratulations!
• Treasures from space can drive revolution on Earth
• ALMANAC: The science and technology that ancient China taught the West – Part II

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