The Australian’s 28 August report, titled “Government-owned bank created out of Australia Post back on Labor’s agenda”, suggests that a government-owned bank created out of Australia Post is back on Labour’s agenda.
The Australian Citizens Party (ACP) has dedicated the past four years to establishing a public post office bank. The ACP sees this model as the most effective means to achieve its goal of re-establishing a public bank in Australia, which has been absent since the privatisation of the Commonwealth Bank.
The ACP collaborated with the Licenced Post Office Group (LPOG), an organisation that advocates for the 2,850 licensees who operate the majority of the postal network as small businesses and strongly supports the establishment of a public post office bank.
LPOG acknowledges that ensuring the financial sustainability of the postal network relies on the bank’s revenue. In turn, this guarantees that all communities have continued access to two vital services: post offices and face-to-face banking services.
Other strong supporters and advocates of a public post bank include:
The Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee’s extensive enquiry into bank closures in regional Australia greatly influenced the campaign. Senator Matt Canavan chaired this 15-month investigation and revealed the private banks’ disregard for their customers and communities. During the hearing in Canberra on 1 December 2023, the ACP, LPOG, and Per Capita all testified in support of establishing a public post bank as a solution to the issue of bank branch closures. They argued that establishing such a bank would ensure that the communities abandoned by the private banks continue to have access to banking services. Additionally, they believed that introducing competition through the bank could potentially discourage further branch closures, similar to the impact of New Zealand’s public post bank, Kiwibank, upon its establishment in 2002.
Senator Canavan suggested that the government should consider forming an expert panel to assess the feasibility of creating a public bank, potentially using the post-bank model as a reference.
The Australian reported that the government is considering a proposal in response to the concern over bank branch closures.
A government-owned post office bank will provide Australians with the following:
This bank is exactly what Australia needs. Australians should express their expectations that the government will fulfill this need.
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