Australia's Debt volcano     Media Release <mediareleases@cecaust.com.au>
30.12.2009

Every Australian adult's share of the debt is $74,000, compared with adult median wages of just over $40,000 a year, and many people struggling to pay debts without a job at all. Australians now know the price of Rudd's bank bailout over the last year—the biggest household debt in history. Australian household debt has soared to over $1.2 trillion, and is now bigger than national GDP. The surge in household debt was driven by the Rudd government's First Home Owner Grant scheme.

Citizens Electoral Council leader Craig Isherwood pointed out the enormous household debt is the cost of the Rudd bank bailout: “Kevin Rudd has saddled Australian households with enormous, unpayable debts, in order to bail out the banks that he lied were 'sound',” Mr Isherwood said. “In October 2008, Australia's banks were all set to crash: they were trapped between over $600 billion in foreign borrowings that their foreign creditors were unable to roll over, and a falling Australian property market into which the banks had lent-on their foreign credit. “We in the CEC warned the banks were bankrupt, but while Rudd lied that the banks were 'sound', he sprang to their aid with a government guarantee for their foreign borrowings, and a huge cash injection into the domestic property market to drive the prices up. “This was disguised as first homeowners assistance, when in fact it has made property even more unaffordable than it was, which was the intention.”

Mr Isherwood observed that household debt is not only bigger than GDP, but now ranks in size to foreign debt, the sum of all Australian borrowings—government, corporate and personal—overseas. “It's debt, debt, and more debt,” he said, “we're a nation drowning in debt. “The global financial crisis is in essence an unpayable debt crisis, but under orders from the bankrupt private banks, governments all over the world have bailed them out by creating even more debt. “It's a swelling volcano, and it is set to blow,” the CEC National Secretary warned.

Government can change its Mind and Ruin Farmers....

Lloyd and Joan Fleming had 3500 acres taken off them by the Bob Carr Labor government. In 1991 they secured the land as a “prickly pear lease” then to converted it to a Crown lease then to freehold. Five years later they received letter from Minister Ian Causley saying that the government was appealing the transfer of the land which was now “no longer available” and would be gazetted as government property. Title deed had been written over: “Can’t be sold, transferred, or inherited.” Lloyd went to the Supreme Court to claim compo and after fighting the case for a month the judge awarded in their favour $2.2m. However Lloyd was never paid the money. After 5 years the NSW govt came up with some UK precedent that a council or government had a right to change its mind. The judge gave the Flemings four days to move all farming equip out of the property. His daughters mustered the 400 cattle off the property but then 4 men came onto the property and mustered off the 2000 sheep after Lloyd had paid up 12 months lease for sheep grazing. The shire ordered the 2000 sheep shot. Lloyd had to go to work at Stanthorpe as a fruit grader – had to find income and had debts.

Inverell farmer Lloyd Fleming has called a protest meeting at
OAKWOOD HALL, PIONEER VILLAGE, Inverell, NSW,
to discuss further action following the Peter Spencer protest rally in Canberra. Pioneer Village is next to the Inverell showgrounds.

Lloyd is a veteran fighter for farmers and can be contacted on (02) 6722 5303. I have been speaking to Lloyd to see how we might be able to help down the track. He cited a couple of cases of local people just recently copping massive fines for non crimes such as clearing fire hazards. I think we need to network eg farmers, truckies, fishermen, forestry workers and others and really crank up this national protest against the destruction of our rights and economic future.