Is this the final kill of the monster RBA bill?

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Lead Editorial

11 September 2024
Vol. 26 No. 37

It’s formulaic in every scary movie featuring a deadly monster or robot or alien or whatever threat the filmmaker conjures up, that the viewer knows that when the hero kills the monster it’s never really dead. There’s always one last “jump-scare” when the monster has one last surge of energy to attack again, and then either the hero or their romantic interest has to kill it off once and for all.

And so it goes with Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ RBA Reforms Bill 2023.

After the Senate inquiry that the Australian Citizens Party forced the Liberals to call, in which experienced former RBA governors and former Treasurer Peter Costello heaped scorn on Chalmers’ attempt to repeal the elected government’s veto power over unelected RBA under Section 11 of the Reserve Bank Act 1959, Chalmers has lurched again into his final attack, like the Terminator sent from the future with one mission— kill democratic accountability for the financial system.

To salvage the deal he had with Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor before the ACP intervened, Chalmers has agreed to retain the power but put forward a spurious “public interest” restriction on its use—when there is already a public interest condition that he is trying to repeal (p. 5). In the amendments he circulated yesterday, he proposed the power should only be used if “extreme circumstances exist” and “doing so is in the public interest”. However, his proposed amendments don’t define the term “extreme circumstances”. As one Senator’s advisor said to the ACP, it was an unserious attempt to salvage a deal, and it was treated that way. After being bombarded with calls and emails for two weeks, organised by the ACP, Angus Taylor strode into the chamber yesterday and announced: “The coalition will not be supporting this Treasury Laws Amendment (Reserve Bank Reforms) Bill 2023.”
The question is whether the final credits are about to start rolling?

Not in Chalmers’ script: last night he doubled down on ABC 7.30, refusing to answer host Sarah Ferguson’s questions as to whether he would now negotiate with the Greens, which would mean keeping Section 11, and Section 36 of the Banking Act 1959 that allows the RBA to direct the lending of the private banks, which the Greens agree with the ACP must stay. Instead of answering, Chalmers was true to his Terminator programming: “I would rather not have to do a deal with the Greens”, he insisted. “If I can avoid it, I would but I’m committed to these reforms. These reforms are really important.” Except he never says why—why is he so determined to remove a power that has never been used in 79 years? Who is he trying so hard to impress? What is being planned at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which will get full control of the RBA if Chalmers succeeds in repealing Section 11?

Without being immodest, the hero in this (unfinished?) script is the ACP, without which Chalmers would have preserved his cozy deal with Angus Taylor and the RBA Reforms Bill would have passed last year. They definitely had a deal, but only until the ACP called for concerned Australians to bombard the Liberals demanding a Senate inquiry.

At the time, one Senator’s office commented to another: “There’s no-one like the Citizens Party to melt the phones down.” Unexpectedly, the subsequent inquiry drew out two former Treasurers and two former RBA governors, who all agreed Section 11 must be retained so the elected Parliament remains sovereign over the financial system. This was enough for the Liberals, who dropped their support, leaving Chalmers’ agenda looking dead until his last-ditch attack this month.

This fight, like the campaign for the public postal bank which the government has now been forced to consider, confirms, yet again, that an informed, active force of everyday citizens can shape politics and policy. It’s government, “by the people”.

In this issue:

• ANZ’s bid to outsmart Suncorp contract reaches new low
• WA Labor government—A national disgrace in treatment of elderly
• Open letter to Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor:
• ‘Deputy Sherriff’ Albanese exposed at Pacific summit as war preparations roll on
• Eastward vision boosts Global South
• Treasury troubles: Throw out the money changers!
• FDR: The money changers have fled the temple
• Will Australia be off to war in the Middle East again?
• The ‘Democratic’ West has an enemies list, and it’s you
• ‘They stole the truth’ reveals Ritter, on archive seizure
• Have we finally killed the RBA Reforms bill?
• Letting slip the ‘dogs of war’: The USA is a national security state
• ALMANAC: Challenging the ‘dictatorship of private financial interests’

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