Australian Gold Repatriation Petition - Draft

Are we just wasting our time and energy. Those senators and politicians will never understand Gold nor will they act on the petition. Look, it was Peter Costello, a libreral, who sold the gold in the first place. Yes, I am a Liberal supporter, and a great fan of Peter Costello, but I also come to realise that those people up there will never acknowledge or understand gold. Even if they do, they might not be able to do anything about it as RBA and Treasury are probably run by a mob of people who do not understand gold and will advice the politicians in moving those Gold back to Australia.

The best thing is that the Treasury will slowly start accumulating some gold within Australia, and perhaps Future Funds(nationally, and those state based ones like that of WA Future Fund and SA Future Fund) will start to accumulate some gold instead of just pure bank deposit accounts.

But really... no politicians in Australia in my mind has taken time, or understand money creation. A better thing to do is to point that to Mike Maloney's videos.
 
Perhaps we should contact Clive Palmer he may want it for ballast for his new Titanic 2. It may have some value there. :D :D

1302_titanic.jpg


Seriously Gino has done an incredible job, but these guys are not going to do anything to upset their utopian political world.
 
A response from my local senator to a follow up email:

Dear [Gino]

Thank you for your email of 6 November 2013 concerning an online petition about the repatriation and accumulation of Australian gold and its role in the Australian banking system.

While I have noted your concerns, I suggest that the matters raised by the petition would best be drawn to the attention of the Federal Treasurer, the Hon. Joe Hockey MP.

Yours sincerely

Senator Jacinta Collins
Senator for Victoria
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To which I have responded thus:

Dear Ms. Collins,

Thank you for your reply. While the issues raised in the petition would be expected to be of concern to all members of parliament including the federal Treasurer, it is a senate petition and inappropriate to present to members of the House of Representative. The intention of the petition is to bring these issues to be considered by the Australian parliament and it is our belief that the Senate is the correct forum for this.

I will point out that I have raised this issue to three other members of parliament and have been referred to you, as my local Senator, being the appropriate individual to bring this petition to the Parliament.

Do you decline to present this petition before the Senate?

If you do decline to represent me and my fellow petitioners in the Senate, could you please advise what recourse do I have to pursue this petition?

Thank you for your consideration,

[Gino]
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She surely has a sense of humour though ... what chance would a Treasurer who gives A$8.5B to the RBA have of being the least bit concerned about the role of gold. The 80T of Australian gold leased through the BOE is only valued at A$3.5B ... he could have more than doubled the Australian gold holding in that one transaction, or he could be printing money and buying gold on the international market to manage the value of the A$. Poor old Joe, is there another Treasurer or Finance Minister in the entire world who has given money to its money printing central bank?

If she was intending to be funny, I like her sense of humour.

If I hear any more, I will advise here.

edit: If anyone would like to write to Senator Collins to encourage her to favourably consider presenting the petition before the Senate, please do so now. Thanks.
 
The signatories to this petition and interested followers will be happy to know that Senator Collins' office has requested a copy of the register of electronic signatures in the prescribed format this morning and they have now been advanced.

While there was no ironclad commitment that the Senator would present the petition in the Senate, it has taken a step closer to Canberra and moved beyond my control.

Thanks for the collective support to get to this point. Well done, all!

Edit: I have requested to be kept informed of progress and shall provide updates here as appropriate. The Senator's office is not sure of timeframes, they are making enquiries regarding the respective processes.

Also, just in case anyone wants to see the petition as it was signed, it is still available for viewing at:
http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/aussiegold
 
Kudos to you. Admire your persistency and tenacity. I would have long given up.

One thing to consider is that rather than trying to bring the physical gold back from the Bank of England, a smarter way is to sell it there and re-purchase the equivalent amount in Australia and store it locally.

I think RBA nor the politician will agree to bring all the amount back to Australia in the first place as I suspect they are simply using the Gold as collateral. I think a smarter move might be to leave whatever is in the BoE there as is, but purchase from the local miners, the equivalent amount and store them in RBA/Australian gold vaults. BTW, I think as a country, RBA should have at least 500 to 1000 ton of bullion sitting in the local vaults.

I used to "loved" Costello as the Treasurer, but I am not so sure now.

I also think that Future Funds - both the commonwealth one and the state ones (WA's FF and SA's FF) should invest 10-20% of the fund in AU if they are smart.
 
Hi Gino (and others on this forum),

Firstly, I'd like to introduce myself:

My name is Rod Holden and I'm involved in the gold industry on several fronts with an emphasis on gold exploration and investments. I have recently set up Perpetual Gold which I'm going to use as a media arm as there are a few issues I want to get out there. My LinkedIn profile is here http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=103500308&trk=tab_pro and the Perpetual Gold website is here http://www.perpetualgold.com.au/. I also ran Gold Report Australia many moons ago, but shut that down.

Now the first issue is the repatriation of Australia's gold held in London and I was in the process of putting together a petition to send to the PM, Treasurer, Senate members and the RBA about repatriating our gold when I found yours!! I sent Bullion Baron an email trying to find who was doing this and he sent me a link to this forum...so I signed up.

I'm glad that it's still current and I would still like to put my own together, continue along as planned and hopefully add some more weight to what you're doing...the more voices the better!

I have adjusted my petition to be similar to yours, but only wish to approach the subject of repatriation rather than demands a) and c) in your petition. I believe that taking on just one issue gives the powers to be less of an opportunity to refuse. This way it may also help get some traction in the main stream media

Also who did the xtranormal video "Return Aussie Gold"? and is it possible for me to use it too?

This is what I'm planning on putting out there:

The Hon Tony Abbott MP - Prime Minister of Australia, The Hon Joe Hockey MP - Treasurer of Australia, the Honourable President and Members of the Senate in Parliament and Glenn Stevens Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia

In the increasingly uncertain global financial circumstances, the attached petitioners are concerned about the impacts on the Commonwealth of Australia relative to the counter-party risks associated with holding national assets outside of Australia. We are concerned that Australia's gold assets (as stated on the Reserve Bank of Australia's website as Official Reserve Assets [Oct 2013] and in its 2013 Annual Report as about 80 tonnes of gold) is stored in London.

The RBA's PR and Media office stated on the 13th of November 2013 that the reason for storing its gold assets in London is for cost efficiency and security reasons. Australia currently has the bullion storage capacity to meet this demand, which therefore makes this argument null and void.

The basis for this concern is that progressively loose monetary policies of foreign Central Banks have seen the following recent reactions relative to gold:

a) Developing nations are seeking to protect the wealth by diversifying their foreign currency reserves through gold accumulation initiatives of their central banks. These countries are reported to include China, Russia, India, South Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay, Columbia, Argentina and Azerbaijan;

b) China and Russia as number 1 and 5 of the top 5 gold producers globally (Australia is number 2) have been accumulating all of their internal mine production and not exporting any gold into international markets;

c) Prudent nations, of both mature and emerging economies, are repatriating their national gold reserves from the historical financial centres of London and New York back to their own countries in increasing numbers. Countries reported to have or are undertaking such repatriation efforts include Germany, Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico, Romania, Azerbaijan, Libya and Iran;

d) Citizens of nations around the world are becoming sufficiently concerned over the potential impacts to petition their governments to audit and account for their gold reserves. Countries with such initiatives include Germany, USA, Netherlands, Switzerland and Australia.

e) Increasing media coverage that a currency crisis may re-establish the role of gold as a monetary asset in the global financial system against which other currencies will be valued.

We believe that any one of these events is sufficient reason to act immediately and ask that the Members of Government instruct the Reserve Bank of Australia to act prudently, minimise the risks and immediately repatriate Australia's gold bullion.
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Look forward to your thoughts

Regards

Gold is a constant, only its popularity ebbs and flows
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Welcome to the forum Rod. Good luck with your petition. The video is in the public domain and able to be linked to while it remains on youtube.

If you are going to put forward a petition, my only suggestion is to consider the end point you want to reach and ensure the form of the petition is consistent with the path you need to take to get there. For instance I decided on a formal Senate petition and that defined its form and criteria for being accepted.

Beyond that, you might have observed through this thread that there were a few people suggesting that a single objective might be a better approach than my three fold demand, so you may find a few people on this forum able to assist in developing your ideas. If you are sincere, it might be appropriate if you start a different discussion thread to develop those ideas, or not.

However, I will observe that there is a petition already submitted and if anyone would like to lend weight to its presentation before the senate then please consider writing to both Senator Collins to encourage her to sponsor it and to contact your local Senator to encourage them to support it.

You might like to also consider what you can do in that regard Rod.
 
Well, I'm amazed. Just in on email from Senator Collins' office ...

... the Senate's Petitions Office has accepted it and is arranging for it to be tabled.
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So, the petition will be presented to the Senate. There is no confirmation of timeframe, but it has moved forward.

Again, all I can suggest from here is that all interested parties push into their networks to raise awareness of the progress of this petition and to engage their local Senators to support the bill on your behalf.

I think Mike Maloney needs to update his list of countries petitioning their government to remobilise their gold holdings!

Edit: Anyone feel like issuing a press release?
 
Bullion Baron said:
Nice work getting it this far Gino.

Gino said:
Edit: Anyone feel like issuing a press release?
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I'm happy to try writing another one of these and distributing, but may be worth waiting until we have a date it will be presented to the senate?
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That's great, BB. Anything you can do is fantastic.
 
Well done Gino. I admit I didnt think it would get tabled and take my hat off to you for working hard to get a result.
 
Thanks for that, but we aren't done yet. The effort now is in lobbying Senators to support the petition when it is tabled in the Senate and for those that care enough, that's something anyone with email, a phone or a pen can do.

I encourage everyone to identify their local senator and make contact with them, drawing their attention to the progress of the petition and your desire that they support it.

Anyone in Clive Palmer's electorate, feel free to go introduce yourself.
 
Gents,

Thanks for your replies and welcome Gino and BB.

I did wonder if there was a particular format depending on who it goes to, so I will address this prior to circulating. Any ideas where I find the correct format for the PM and Treasurer? I think I might leave the Senate to you guys and focus elsewhere with the hope that small fires on several fronts may look like a bushfire to them.

My aim is to hit the mass media with this once I get it off the ground so any support here is welcome.

The gold industry is so much under represented! There's no Gold Council or even a peak body that just represents the gold industry. I asked Ian Smith (the then CEO of Newcrest) if a gold council would be re-established and wasn't interested in discussing it...this is terrible for Australia's 3rd largest export at nearly $16Bn (behind Iron Ore and Coal).

Good idea on chasing up the CEO's of gold companies and getting them on board (might need to think about the approach though)


Talk soon and feel free to sign up to my newsletter on Perpetual Gold and keep an eye on what I'm doing also. I will keep all here in the loop and also keep an eye on your progress.

Cheers

Gold is a constant, only its popularity ebbs and flows
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I have contacted the Senate's Petition Officer directly to enquire about the process and progress of this petition and can provide the following update:

1) The petition will be "tabled" in the Senate on December 2 and recorded in the official Hansard parliamentary journal for that day;
2) Tabling of the petition is a process that just enters the petition into the official record and does not entail any parliamentary discussion or debate;
3) The utility of the petition is in its formal recording to be used in conjunction of other efforts to create action, such as:
a) Make a submission to a related Senate Committee enquiry - the related Senate Committee is the Finance and Public Administration committee
b) Reference to in engaging members of parliament to discuss or consider related issues
c) Reference to in creating public awareness (political pressure) to take action on a particular issue

So on December 2, 2013 the petition will be entered into the official history of the Parliament of Australia as 546 concerned people formally lodged their concern regarding the state of the Australian Gold reserves.

As an item of public record, anyone can make reference to the petition (including Rob) in any related (or unrelated) efforts.

To be honest, I thought that the sitting politicians would at least have to hear the text of the petition, but apparently not unless the sponsoring senator, in this case Senator Jacinta Collins, requests leave to make a supporting statement. Apparently this is very rarely done and only if the senator feels compelled to extend that effort, either through a personal sense of concern or under sufficient community pressure. I have offered my time to explain the importance of this petition to the senator to support her making such a statement, but it is not likely to be requested.

So, I believe that is the end of the road for this petition other than a resource for others to refer to in their efforts. It has been an interesting process and I thank everyone who contributed for their involvement. For those who would like to build upon this platform, I offer my encouragement and best wishes.
 
Nice job Gino.

That's a bit of a disappointment that it doesn't get read out after all of that effort. It's a very good start though and it's on the record now (or will be). I will see if I can build on this...

Cheers
 
Well done Gino. You have done as much as you can, and much more than many of us here in the forum. I congratulate you for seeing this as far as it has gone. In reality, the decision to repatriate the Gold will rest with the Treasure, ie. Joe Hockey, and I think he is too busy trying to raise the debt ceiling.

In any case, 90 tons of gold is too small as a reserve. The best thing we can do for our country is to start accumulating ourselves. A better bet would be to somehow convince the Future Funds to buy into some and hold them within the country. At the end of the day, having physical ounces in country is what counts.
 
Just had a live chat session with Colin Barnett and asked him about WAFF and gold investment:


Comment From me
How is the WA Future Fund doing so far? Why does the WAFF not put some money aside purchasing Gold but rather than Bonds
11:59


Colin Barnett:
The Future Fund has around $700 million in it at present. It will grow to around $5 billion or more by 2030. The money is preserved to spread some of today's prosperity to future generations. As the fund gets bigger, it will no doubt have a wider mix of financial assets and that could even include gold.
 
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