Is Australia really an egalitarian country? Five recent Prime Ministers have asserted that Australia is an egalitarian country. But with regard to the primary retail payment instrument used across Australia, namely the Credit Card, at the orchestration of manipulative, scheming bankers, The Haves have exploited The Have Nots to the detriment of Financially Uneducated And Vulnerable Australians that possess, through no fault of their own, poor Financial Literacy Skills. Some Credit Card Issuers have deployed Predatory Advertising and charged Usurious Interest Rates and Penalty Fees, Targeted at Credit Cardholders with Low Financial Literacy Capacity
Do we genuinely believe in ALL Australians receiving a 'fair go'? If our politicians 'talk it', they should 'have walked it' because not all Australians are born with the same calibre of mental genes and receive the same depth of mentoring and education.
To walk it, the Australian Govt, in concert with the Reserve Bank of Australia, should have re-introduced a Cap on Credit Card interest rates as far back as June 1992 when the spread between the Overnight Cash Rate and the Purchase Interest Rate exceeded 16%, because of the RBA’s –
A. obligations to “the economic prosperity and welfare of (ALL) the people of Australia” because its Payment System Board’s “has been given the backing of strong regulatory powers that are unique amongst central banks; and
B. obligations to “inform the Government, from time to time, of the Bank’s monetary and banking policy”,
so we all pay our way under the User Pays Principle.
Bob Hawke possessed a 'A burning passion for egalitarianism'.
"Bankers can continue to pay themselves a fortune for leeching off the rest of the economy, and the only price they have to pay is the occasional well rehearsed apology." 15/10/2016
Below is an extract from a speech by the then Prime Minister, the Hon P.J. Keating, MP at the National Press Club, Canberra on Thurs, 24 Aug 1995
"As Australian policy had been right through the eighties, Working Nation was
different to the orthodox model of economic liberalisation the model adopted
in a number of other countries and by our opponents.
It took the view that we could be competitive and still look after those on the
margins. We could compete with the best in the region and the world, and
yet maintain our egalitarian values and preserve our social cohesion."
Below is an extract from THE CONVERSATION article "In Australia, land of the ‘fair go’, not everyone gets an equal slice of the pie":
"Australian politicians, interest groups and political and social commentators have long drawn on the idea of the 'fair go'. In fact, despite their ideological differences, Australia’s last four Prime Ministers have all used the term at some point.
In government and opposition, former Labor leader, Kevin Rudd, referred to the 'fair go', particularly when criticising the Howard government’s WorkChoices industrial relations reforms.
In December 2011, then Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, also argued that “we are the people who hold onto mateship and the fair go”, citing Labor’s support for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and health spending in support of this claim.
The idea of the 'fair go' is not unique to Labor, either. Robert Menzies and Malcolm Fraser used the term in campaign speeches, and then Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, also made reference to a 'fair go' when discussing tax reform in 2015. He stated:
We have a very unique culture in Australia and we have a very good mixture of capitalism and free market, but we also have a culture of 'fair go', of looking after each other."
Bollocks!
The afore-mentioned 'leaders' of Australia's Commonwealth Govt. each attested that Australia is an egalitarian country where all Australians receive a fair go. However, with regard to who funds the Revenue Stream for Credit Card Products, as -
A. numerically calculated in Persistent Revolvers;
C. chronicled in separate RBA, Productivity Commission, ASIC and ABS reports (Chapter 1),
chronicle reams of evidence to the contrary.
The elected Federal Government is bound by the Australian Constitution. Section 51 of the Australian Constitution, in particular sub clause (xiii), behooves the Australian Parliament "to make laws" to re-impose a maximum interest rate for Purchases and a maximum interest rate for Cash Advances that also factor in any associated fees, collectively Interest And Penalty Fees. A further new Commonwealth Parliament "law" could limit the percentage of a Credit Card Limit that could be drawn as a Cash Advance eg 50% or 33.3% or 25% of the Card Limit.