Australian Gold Confiscation

Recent article that discusses Austrlian gold confiscatin:

Could it happen here?
...

There's a reason why countries stockpile gold. When a currency becomes worthless, gold is can be a payment instead. And boosting gold supplies is one way to ensure a currency is still viable.

I have no doubt that India's 'alternate investment' plan is a shuffle towards the government accumulating more gold. While it appears on the surface to be an innocent plan to give Indians different investment choices, the real reason is that the Indian government doesn't have gold confiscation laws in place.

Whereas Australia does.

What Australia doesn't have, however, is a population that hoards gold.

So few Aussies hold bullion that there aren't even statistics on it.

The Perth Mint stores around $2.5billion in allocated and unallocated gold. Three quarters of the Mint's customers hold unallocated gold. Of that, over half of those customers are located in North America.

A much older statistic, from 2008, says over 45% of all Perth Mint gold stores belong to international customers.

This tells you it's pointless for the government to raid Australia's private bullion holdings, as most of us don't even bother with it.

Instead, if the Aussie government wanted to boost their own bullion reserves, there's one simple step that they'd take.

Australian gold mines pumped out 270 tonnes in 2014. Local gold miners generally can produce 200300 tonnes of gold each year.

This makes the mines a perfect target.

All of this is laid out in Part IV of the Banking Act 1959.

The Reserve Bank of Australia have the ability to set the price of gold at any time.

Which means the RBA could tell the mines what they are going to pay for the gold, and set whatever price they like. Once this is in place, the next step is to nationalise the mines, leaving any gold dug up property of the RBA.

And in those two moves, the Aussie government would completely control the gold market in Australia.

Now, these laws are currently 'suspended'. Suggesting that right now there's no immediate threat to any gold miners. But remember the laws are in place. There's no need for debate in parliament or public consultation.

One interesting clause though, is Section 47. Apparently 'wrought' gold is not included in the any gold confiscation plan. The loose legal language implies that jewellery and gold ornaments are exempt from any wealth stealing.

The loophole means that the government may take bullion and coin, but not the chain around your neck.

Also, this act only refers to gold, and not silver.

If you're worried about the government coming after your bullion stash one day, buy necklaces this Christmas.

Because the Aussie government already has laws in place to take all the gold bullion it wants.

Regards,

Shae Smith
Editor, Strategic Intelligence


http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/can-the-australian-government-confiscate-your-gold/2015/11/18/
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SilverPete said:
Recent article that discusses Austrlian gold confiscatin:
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It is interesting how she raises some very detailed points about that act very similar to my article, I suppose it is coincidental. Anyway, the act talks does not give the government any powers to nationalise mines, it just talks about having to sell your gold to the RBA. Her thinking is confused, you don't set the price then nationalise, if you nationalise you don't need to bother with price as you're not paying anyone, as you (the government) now own the mine. The whole point of that part of the act was that the government doesn't want to own or operate mines and thus doesn't have to nationalise because all miners have to sell their gold to the RBA. And they can't set whatever price they like, as the act has the ability to claim compensation, which means it can be challenged in court.
 
bron suchecki said:
SilverPete said:
Recent article that discusses Austrlian gold confiscatin:
Click to expand...

Anyway, the act talks does not give the government any powers to nationalise mines, it just talks about having to sell your gold to the RBA. The whole point of that part of the act was that the government doesn't want to own or operate mines and thus doesn't have to nationalise because all miners have to sell their gold to the RBA.
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Why do miners have to sell "a barbarous relic" like gold to the RBA ... or to any bank for that matter ...
 
Amy suggestions for solid storage of allocated and non-allocated in Singapore?
 
Punch a hole in your coins and wear it round your neck then hey presto jewellery
 
In this scenario, what will happen to proof/collectors gold coins? Will these be confiscated too? If not, perhaps it's better to stack and purchase proof coins, if and when they are on special, no?
 
The old confiscation laws were written prior to the newer wealth confiscation laws and reversal of onus of proof, so there may be other legal avenues the government could use if they tweak the newer laws or just confiscate all gold for which you dont have a receipt (onus of proof is on you, not the crown, in such cases).
 
SilverPete said:
The old confiscation laws were written prior to the newer wealth confiscation laws and reversal of onus of proof, so there may be other legal avenues the government could use if they tweak the newer laws or just confiscate all gold for which you dont have a receipt (onus of proof is on you, not the crown, in such cases).
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That's right.

Basically it's a non argument. Government can confiscate your gold and silver if they choose to and there is nothing you can do about it really. They create law to which they bind the public to, in other words, rather than government being subservient to the public, it's actually the other way around. The government believes it is there to control and monitor you in as many ways as possible and have absolute authority of just about everything. Meh... but who's afraid of a little bit of government?

Funny thing is government think ironically that they are the country... hahaha, the people are the country, the people are the history and the culture.
 
As far as US citizens, there is no reason to store gold or silver or cash in some other country and believe it is "safe" from the US gov. We have seen what the Swiss banks did to US citizens under pressure from the US gov: they sang like birds (revealed US info to authorities). And this was a country that was traditionally the most "safe" haven out there.

To think that some foreign country is going to protect YOUR assets held there (gold, silver, cash, etc) is wishful thinking. When Uncle Sam tells them to give it up (reveal your assets, etc), they will comply eventually. All the US has to do is threaten these countries with sanctions such as removal from the SWIFT system, etc, and they will cave.

I believe a person would have a better chance by burying the gold in their backyard if they really can't come up with a local storage option that is safe. Perhaps it is different for citizens from other countries, especially smaller ones that have no real power to threaten the country holding your assets for info?

Just my opinion.

Jim
 
I highly doubt that either the U.S. or Australia will resort to gold confiscation. All any country has to do is turn on the printing presses and buy it outright with fiat money.....for free...
 
fltacoma said:
I highly doubt that either the U.S. or Australia will resort to gold confiscation. All any country has to do is turn on the printing presses and buy it outright with fiat money.....for free...
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That's actually how they do it ..... at their price.
 
If Australia had no gold and our government went "nut-job tyrannical" then that would be plausible.

The fact is that Australia is a treasure island loaded with gold as one of the worlds largest producers with plenty in reserve in the ground that one would hope give them actually no cause to steal from the people.

Pay them pieces of paper and digital units and have them dig it out for free for you would be a better vote seeking policy for our vote seekers.
 
FlashInThePan said:
If Australia had no gold and our government went "nut-job tyrannical" then that would be plausible.
The fact is that Australia is a treasure island loaded with gold as one of the worlds largest producers with plenty in reserve in the ground that one would hope give them actually no cause to steal from the people.
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Hope? It's more a practical reality.
It's laughable to think the government is going to confiscate people's gold. But hey, this is Silver Stackers :rolleyes:
 
It is definitely a bit out there.

Considering the amount of people that still hold a barbarous relic like gold and silver, the benefits to such a policy is not realistic unless they go completely nut-job IMHO. What would the returns be to the cash strapped Govt. Just how many more weeks of their expenditure outgoings could they extend out to by bringing all the remaining gold in minus the enforcement and political repercussions in going down that path.

They then of course would be committing theft like that a common criminal no matter what deceptive tactics may be used for someone to actually consent to such a proposition.

No matter what statute is written down or how it is worded, stealing property extends all legal boundaries just like murder, assault & battery as a cardinal legal principle.
 
It's your Super they want and there are real possibilities that confiscation (trading for pensions is the likely mechanism) of those is a "probable" scenario.
 
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