Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier this week the Senate didn't vote down the misinformation bill; the government withdrew it from the Notice Paper on the basis that millions of Australians did not want foreign social media companies telling them what they could and couldn't say on social media. Now, the question is this: why is it that the Australian people don't want their speech controlled by foreign media companies, yet that is exactly what happens with regard to credit in this country? Our credit in this country is controlled by foreign banks. In 1985 Paul Keating lifted capital controls. That meant that there were no restrictions on what domestic banks could borrow from foreign banks. We saw the level of foreign debt held by the four domestic banks here in Australia rise from $8 billion to $800 billion. It was ironic Paul Keating of all people should do that, because that was actually against the advice of the 1937 banking royal commission, which said the central bank should always control the volume of credit in the system.

One of the things I hear quite often from people in this chamber and other politicians is that we've always relied on foreign debt. That is a complete and utter insult to the working people of Australia. It is a complete and utter insult because it's not foreign debt or foreign capital that we have relied upon. It is our own capital. It is domestic capital in the form of equity, which is our untapped wealth. Every time a domestic bank goes out and borrows foreign dollars—for example, it's on the 144A bond market, it'll go out to the euro bond market or they'll go out and borrow US dollars in the main and get some euro bonds based in euros, but the biggest market in the world, of course, is a paper market, and that is the US treasury bond market. All of that money comes off the printing press. I asked the Minister for Finance last week why we won't create an infrastructure bank in this country whereby we issue equity instead of debt. We have got to stop issuing bonds to foreign investors. We are a sovereign country.

Now, companies, when they raise capital, don't always go out and issue debt. They can issue shares. We see it quite often here in Australia on the stock market. Mining companies will go out and issue new equity to start a new mining project. Why as a federal government don't we do that? We should because we are a sovereign country that has title over all the untapped wealth in this country. People will say, 'You can't print money out of thin air.' That's a complete and utter oxymoronic statement. All money comes out of thin air. The question isn't whether or not you issue new credit; the question is what you secure that credit against. Responsible management of credit is issuing credit against an asset—a debit—that is going to produce recurring revenue to pay down the debt or control title. That recurring revenue then pays for the cost of schools and hospitals. That title on a balance sheet is known as equity. Title over this country is what our founding forefathers built in this country. It is what our veterans fought for.

I urge people today to stop and reflect. If you don't want foreign social media companies controlling free speech in this country, why are you so relaxed and happy to allow foreign banks to control the level of debt in this country? If you think you're being controlled by the media through the propaganda they feed out to you every day, it is nothing compared to debt. Debt is the greatest instrument control of all. When Paul Keating lifted capital controls in 1985, it was a slap in the face to one of those authors of the 1937 banking royal commission—a future Labor prime minister by the name of Ben Chifley. It is up to the central bank, not foreign banks, to control the volume of credit in the system.