Page 3271 - Week 11 - Thursday, 13 September 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mr Connolly: Tricontinental should have lent itself more money. That was the answer.
MR STEVENSON: Well, the truth is, of course, that Tricontinental could not lend itself more money.
Mr Connolly: Why?
MR STEVENSON: Mr Connolly, I said "trading banks". The suggestion that State banks can run out of money is yet another myth. The State banks have what are called drawing rights and if they are short of money they can call on the Reserve Bank. Trading banks, under their drawing rights, can draw money from the Reserve Bank. If the Reserve Bank does not have it, it will print it on their behalf. That is the right they have under drawing rights. (Extension of time granted)
Let us look at some figures from the Year Book Australia from 1980 to 1988 and see actually how much money is in existence relative to credit - the credit creation ratios. Mr Speaker, people are trying to do something with their financial arrangements. Would you ask them to wait till I finish my speech?
MR SPEAKER: You have the right to be heard but not to be listened to, Mr Stevenson.
MR STEVENSON: I think that you have put yourself on the record very solidly and, indeed, in future, I will remind you of it.
In 1980, for every $1 in coin and notes, there was $66.74 in credit. In 1986 it was $77.08. In 1988 it dropped remarkably, down to $42.56. So, what is the import of what I am saying? What I am saying is that Australia has vast resources - in mineral wealth, in what is above the ground, in the Aussie people who are an ingenious lot of enterprising people and do not lack the desire to do well, do not lack the willingness to work hard. All we lack, we are told, is money.
Picture, if you could, a new playing field. We go out into the forest and we have timber to build. We have the minerals to create wealth - the minerals needed to create building materials to build. We have people who are prepared to work, to build. This was all gotten together and just when someone was about to say, "Okay, fellows, let us get into it and build and create some wealth", someone rushed up with a little sign saying "banker", followed close behind by someone with a little sign saying "politician", and said, "Sorry, gentlemen, you cannot do that". And they said, "Why cannot we do this?". And he said, "You cannot do that because we have not the pieces of paper to indicate the exchange, to indicate what you are doing. In other words, we do not have enough money". Now, if those people lacked awareness and were easily conned, as
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .