The sleeping giant awakens

The Australian Alert Service is the weekly publication of the Citizens Electoral Council of Australia.

It will keep you updated of strategic events both in Australia, and worldwide, as well as the organising activities of the CEC.

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Lead Editorial

20 November 2019
Vol. 21. No 47

After ordering and executing the 7 December 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbour, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is said to have reflected: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

If it were capable of such reflection, this should be the primary concern of the Australian government today, given its heavy-handed reaction to popular outrage against the international banking mafia’s “bail-in” bill last year and “cash ban” bill now.

Following its usual secretive method of announcing the Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill 2019 and consultation process late on a Friday, Treasury misled Parliament about the unprecedented reaction to the bill. Nearly 4,000 submissions received from the general public in just two weeks—well beyond the usual 30-odd from institutions—were dismissed as “a CEC campaign”. After a week of irate complaints Treasury published the submissions, albeit while censoring a couple of hundred and burying Big Four auditor KPMG’s submission among those from individuals, to hide it from scrutiny. KPMG’s submission proved what the Citizens Party and co-thinkers had claimed from the get-go—that the impetus for the bill came from KPMG and its cronies in the corrupt financial sector. KPMG’s submission mirrored the Black Economy taskforce report, written by former KPMG head Michael Andrew, but went further, calling for: banning cash use over $2,000; putting the limit into the regulation so it can be changed at whim; and scrapping individual-to-individual exemptions. Minutes after word got out, Treasury moved it into its proper place among the other institutional submissions. Then in the course of defending its censorship (of submissions that criticised KPMG), Treasury was caught out protecting the accounting giant. 

The activated population has unleashed a dramatic upheaval in both minor and major parties. Katter’s Australia Party, One Nation, other cross-benchers and even the Greens are finding common ground on addressing failings in the financial system. Labour responded to public pressure to demand an extended inquiry into the cash bill, and its support for Pauline Hanson’s dairy bill is indicative of a shift. There is a revolt within the Liberal Party rank and file over the cash ban, with the Victorian State Council to vote this weekend on a motion opposing the bill. With such shifting political sands there is potential to spark a mutiny that forces the government to withdraw the bill!

In this environment, no matter what the financial establishment does, it will backfire. If they go harder and ram the bill through, it will incense the population even more, as witnessed with the 2018 passage of bail-in. If they back off to appease the mob, as in their response to the submissions cover up, they slip up and reveal their agenda.

On Monday 25 November Bob Katter MP will table legislation that the Citizen’s Party helped draft, the Australian Banks (Government Audit) Bill 2019, which will be seconded by the Greens, in another display of the building cross-party alliance. This legislation would smash apart the government-bank-auditor collusion that directs our financial system to loot citizens and prevents it being used to develop the nation. (p. 5)

King O’Malley, the firebrand American MP behind Australia’s one-time national bank, the Commonwealth Bank, famously said that once Aussies wake up they are hard to suppress: “The Australian is such a lovable fellow, the salt of the earth. So vigorous physically, but dulled mentally for want of sharpening up with knowledge. How he could expand! What a God-given heritage there is here! But Australians sleep on. If only the people here would realise what they own; what is theirs by the grace of God! Trouble is it came to them without a fight…. But they’ll wake up good and proper some day. Then let the rest of the world look this way—there’ll be something to see! That I’ll promise you.”

In this issue:

• NEVER give up! Treasury caves and publishes submissions on cash ban!
• KPMG, the original too-big-to-jail
• Based on Treasury’s misinformation, Senate should reject cash ban
• Katter’s audit bill targets corrupt bank-auditor nexus, systemic financial risks
• Fuel loads the real bushfire danger
• It’s all or nothing for big banks in new speculative frenzy
• Economy doesn’t need ‘Repo’ market—it needs Glass-Steagall
• Financial warnings from market insiders
• Will the USA and Mexico seal the border against weapons and drugs?
• Four measures to defeat Dope, Inc.’s takeover of Mexico
• Usual Washington suspects behind Bolivia coup
• Dead men tell no tales: White Helmets founder ‘commits suicide’ in Turkey
• MPs have to kill this bill!
• Petition to free Assange tabled in Australian Parliament
• ALMANAC: Green insanity and electricity dereg set california on fire – Part I

Click here for the archive of previous issues of the Australian Alert Service