Australia needs to become a republic‚ not to have an Australian as head of state‚ but because Australia will not be able to develop to its full potential unless the British monetarist shackles on Australian sovereignty‚ enforced by the Crown in the Constitution‚ are broken‚ Citizens Electoral Council leader Craig Isherwood declared today.

“An Australian republic is not a symbolic issue‚” Mr Isherwood said‚ “our economic welfare depends on it.

“Australia has collapsed from an industrial powerhouse in the 1940s‚ 50s and 60s‚ into a debt-laden‚ colonial-style raw materials quarry‚ totally vulnerable to economic catastrophe when the next wave of the global financial crisis hits.

“This is the price we pay for being under British imperial control‚ and not a sovereign republic.”

The British Crown’s control over Australia is exercised through the undefined “reserve powers” of the Governor-General in the Constitution. The Crown’s concern was always—and still is—not dictating daily political decisions in Australia‚ but to ensure that Australia’s finances remains under the monetarist control of the City of London financial nexus‚ for which England’s “Constitutional Monarchy” has been a front since the 1688 Glorious Revolution. When the writers of the Australian Constitution—many of whom were pro-American republicans—inserted the uniquely American constitutional feature in Section 51‚ which gives the people‚ through the parliament‚ the power over banking and the money supply‚ the British Colonial Office expressed alarm at the implications for “British investors”‚ i.e. the City of London‚ but‚ concerned that deleting the section would be too blatant‚ instead edited the Constitution to explicitly beef up the Crown’s powers to be able to override any sovereign action by Australia deemed to threaten the City of London.

The fight between Australian patriots wanting to exert Australia’s economic sovereignty‚ and the British Crown’s suppression of that sovereignty‚ has been the defining issue in Australia ever since. The “old” Labor Party called the City of London the “Money Power”‚ and their clarity on the issue achieved some success: in 1911‚ King O’Malley’s efforts saw the establishment of the Commonwealth Bank‚ which under its first governor‚ Sir Denison Miller‚ made full use of the powers of Section 51 of the Constitution to dramatically boost the Australian economy.

Upon Miller’s death in 1923‚ the Bruce government shackled the bank under a board of directors drawn from the private banks and big business‚ which then defied the Scullin-Theodore Labor government’s 1930 order to issue money for public works to alleviate the Great Depression. When NSW Labor Premier Jack Lang in 1932 defied the Bank of England’s demands for Australia to prioritise interest payments to British bondholders by slashing wages by 25 per cent across-the-board at the height of the Depression‚ the Crown asserted its power on behalf of the City of London‚ and sacked him.

Following the 1936 Royal Commission on Banking‚ which included Ben Chifley as a commissioner and which found that the government should exercise ultimate control over the banking system‚ as per the Constitution‚ ALP Opposition leader John Curtin summarised the essential issue in his 1937 election campaign launch speech at the Fremantle Town Hall‚ by calling for the Commonwealth Bank to be brought back under government control‚ and declaring‚ “If the Government … excluded itself from … monetary policy it cannot govern except in a secondary degree.” [emphasis added]

When Curtin and Chifley took office in 1941‚ they used war-time emergency powers to take charge of the banking system‚ in accordance with the recommendations of the Royal Commission‚ to spectacular effect‚ displayed in the miraculous war-time economic mobilisation. Following the war (and Curtin’s death) Chifley sought to make the war-time banking measures permanent‚ which was foiled by the private banks; his subsequent retaliation to nationalise banking was crushed by the British Crown‚ through the Privy Council.

Labor’s next‚ and final attempt‚ to exert Australia’s economic sovereignty came when Whitlam took office following 23 years of Labor in opposition‚ and the last of the “old” Labor warhorses‚ Minerals and Energy Minister Rex Connor‚ and Treasurer Jim Cairns‚ tried to “buy back the farm” and bring all of Australia’s enormous raw materials wealth under Australian control‚ so that Australia could develop the resources and value-adding processing industries‚ so as to not become a colonial quarry. Again‚ the Crown‚ which both politically and financially was threatened‚ through the Queen’s personal shareholding in the company that dominated Australia’s resources‚ Rio Tinto‚ asserted its power‚ and sacked the government.

(See The New Citizen‚ Oct./Nov. 2009)

“Tragically‚ the last of the ‘old’ Labor patriots died with the Whitlam government‚ and the modern Labor ‘republicans’ like Keating and Rudd are a fraud‚” Mr Isherwood said.

“Malcolm Turnbull tried to foist a bankers’ republic on Australia back in 1999‚ wherein the control of the City of London would be preserved through reserve powers for an appointed head of state‚ and the Australian people rightly rejected it.

“The current debate shows they are trying to do the same thing again‚ and the giveaway is their sleight-of-hand to get the Australian people to focus on the symbolic issue of the nationality of our head of state‚ and not the substantive issue of whether the people or the bankers are in charge of our economic destiny.”

Mr Isherwood concluded‚ “The fight for a true republic is a fight for our sovereignty and independence‚ which is a fight we must win.

“I urge every patriotic Australian to join us.”