High priests of finance and war under siege

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Lead Editorial

23 August 2023
Vol. 25 No. 34

There is so much important political progress currently underway in Australia today, it’s almost impossible to summarise it all here, but we’ll try. All of it reflects progress in the fight to bring the financial and political elite back under the control of the people and nation.

On the war front, the leadership of the Australian Labor Party resorted to backroom tactics to force last weekend’s National Conference in Brisbane to endorse AUKUS as ALP policy, but they didn’t succeed in quelling the rebellion among members; instead, they fueled it even more (p. 6). This pyrrhic victory will damage them badly in the long run. Outside the conference, the Australian Citizens Party (ACP) featured prominently in the public protests, bearing a massive portrait of Julian Assange who symbolises Australia’s surrender of national sovereignty to its “dangerous allies”, as the late Malcom Fraser called the UK and USA.

On the financial reform front, as of publication today the Senate Economics Committee’s inquiry into the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s investigation and enforcement is conducting its first proper hearing, chaired by Senator Andrew Bragg. Witness after witness is giving explosive testimony about ASIC’s failure to police clear cases of financial crime, including fraud and insider trading; their testimony can only lead to the conclusion that ASIC in fact is not a regulator, but exists to protect financial elites from the law. The hearings come two days after a major billionaires’ bash at Melbourne’s Grand Hyatt for the 70th anniversary of major taxation law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler, at which, according to The Australian the next day, ASIC Chair Joe Longo was in attendance rubbing shoulders with the many billionaires. Longo’s attendance at this soirée, alongside people ASIC is supposed to be policing, is emblematic of ASIC’s modus operandi that the elite are comfortable with, but which fails the people. They’d like to assume they could operate that way forever, but the Senate hearings are giving voice to the demands of the people that this corrupt system must be cleaned up— the barbarians are massing at the gate.

The Australian Citizens Party is right in the middle of developments that are progressing the fight for a people’s bank. Last week the ACP attended the Western Australia hearings in Carnamah and Beverley of the Senate inquiry into bank closures in regional Australia, which were very powerful. The people of the towns who are being abandoned made it crystal clear that banking services are absolutely necessary, leaving no doubt that the banks are lying when they claim they are following their customers in going digital. The one bank that appeared, BankWest, arrogantly testified that consulting with locals before closing branches was useless, as they wouldn’t change their minds anyway. Senator Gerard Rennick especially, but also Chairman Senator Matt Canavan, took BankWest to task on their responsibility to the community. By the end of BankWest’s testimony, the executives were shaken, but the townsfolk were furious, which sends a clear message to the Senators that this time they must address this issue, and not let the banks off the hook.

Back in Melbourne the day after the WA hearings, the ACP attended a protest in Bourke Street outside Australia Post headquarters, against the closure of post offices. The Albanese government’s Australia Post modernisation review has now published its submissions—former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate made a submission more than 120 pages long, advocating expanded banking services to save post offices, while Australia Post’s submission was only 19 pages long, justifying post office closures. The ACP shared the postal bank solution at the protest, finding agreement with the customers, unions, and even politicians in attendance. This week One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts put forward a unique proposal for how to achieve a postal bank (p. 3).

Finally, please read the ACP’s tribute to Greens advisor Fraser Brindley (p. 15), a valued fellow fighter against the high priests of finance, who will be sorely missed.

In this issue:

• Can a people’s bank save us from ESG madness?
• The dirty business of bank closures laid bare in WA
• Branch closures in reverse—what could happen if ...
• Albanese sells out sovereignty to stay in government
• Government hides backlash against Orwellian bill
• UK passes law to protect cash access
• Advancing the AUKUS military-industrial complex
• USA absorbs Australia: NTIB warnings
• Government can and must guarantee banking and postal services!
• Farewell Fraser Brindley, scourge of neoliberal priesthood
• Banking to help people
• ALMANAC: What every Australian patriot should know (Part Three)

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