Australian Gold Repatriation Petition - Draft

C

CriticalSilver

New Member
Silver Stacker
For those interested in commensing or participating in a petition of the Australian Senate to repatriate the Australian Gold reserves.

The process of submitting a petition to the Australian Senate is defined here:
http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Petitions/Senate_Petitions/petitions

It is a relatively simple process and they accept electronic petitions.

To start the ball rolling I have drafted a petition and present it below for the review and feedback of those interested.

To the Honourable President and members of the Senate in Parliament assembled:

The petition of the undersigned shows: (state grievance or subject of complaint)

That in the increasingly uncertain global financial circumstances, Australians are very concerned about the financial stability of the Commonwealth of Australia. We are concerned that the increasingly aggressive monetary policies of international Central Banks to debase their currencies through programs that amount to rampant money printing is:

1) Impacting the Australian currency by raising its comparative value and reducing the international competitiveness of our export industries;
2) Undermining the basis of trust in the International Currency Regime that has been the historic hallmark of the increasing affluence of developed economies since the Second World War, while increasing international tensions;
3) Increasingly seeing developing nations seeking to protect the wealth realised in their development by diversifying their foreign currency reserves through active accumulation initiatives of gold by their central banks. These countries include China, Russia and India;
4) Forcing both mature and emerging nations to prudently repatriate their national gold reserves from the historical financial centres of London and New York back to their own soil. Countries that have or are undertaking such repatriation efforts include Germany, Venezuela, Libya and Iran;
5) Increasingly seeing concerned citizens of nations around the globe petition their governments to audit and account for their gold reserves. Countries with such initiatives include USA, Netherlands, Switzerland and Australia;
6) Seeing the international investment strategies hedging the risk of devaluing global currencies by investing in agricultural and industrial commodities, precious metals and other tangible assets that will push inflationary effects into the real economy; and
7) {is there another}

Your petitioners ask that the Senate: (state the action required)

To establish initiatives for the Commonwealth of Australia to:
a) Remove the conflict of interest of the Reserve Bank of Australia between its role as national gold custodian and issuer of the national currency, by transferring the role of National Gold Custodian to the Treasury.
b) Repatriate its gold reserves from London back to the Australian Treasury;
c) Begin a program of accumulating precious metal reserves at the Treasury, considering the efficiency of a precious metal mining tax payable in the metals mined.


Name Address Signature
(To be accululated by electronic petition site)
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I don't mind setting it up and presenting it to a senator for their presentation, might have more weight coming from some industry heavyweights, but one never knows where things lead. So if you have any golden insights into the wording please present them below. I will do my best to incorporate them.
 
Looks great gino, got my support, I would suggest 2 changes, instead of buying precious metals I would just keep it to and specify gold, and clarify the tax payment as all tax and govt fees payable to the Comm govt be paid in kind by gol by gold. This may be difficult as most mining companies dont refine, but it could apply to all businesses deriving income from gold bullion.
 
Very well written Gino. Also just wanted to say that this petition is A grand idea! :).
 
7) Increasing the likelihood that a new international reserve currency is eventually adopted to replace the US dollar which will be wholly or partially backed by gold as a necessity for restoring confidence in an independent reference for value.

4) include Equador and identify the increasing trend in repatriations

Should mention be made of the counter-party risk of holding national assets in financially distressed countries like the UK with an increasingly negative credit rating outlook? If they are downgraded through the course of the petition it could make the case more compelling.
 
Couple of points, in (b) does Australia only have gold reserves in London? Be more a catchall phrase to say repatriate all gold held outside of Australia be send to Australia. In c), is there presently a tax or you propose a tax? Its kind of not clear?
 
Azerbaijan is both accumulating and taking delivery of physical gold.

Rather than "a new international reserve currency", might be worth noting the existence of SDRs (an old international reserve currency) and/or the increased discussion of multi-currency baskets such as the mooted BRICS basket as a medium for international trade (the point being that there are several alternatives to the USD on the table in one form or another.
 
As a shareholder in a precious metals producer I object strongly to any money being taken in tax that should end up in my pocket.

Yet more sovereign risk in Australian mining...

** Please note I do not want to derail this petition thread into a tax conversation **
 
you want to give control of the gold to treasury, I prefer it nowhere near the monetary vandals that currently occupy the office of treasury thanks. Reserve bank vault for me
 
hiho said:
you want to give control of the gold to treasury, I prefer it nowhere near the monetary vandals that currently occupy the office of treasury thanks. Reserve bank vault for me
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As far as I can tell, the RBA sold the gold and is part of the US dollar reserve system of central banks and is by design an independent authority, not bound to follow government orders. This, coupled with its monopoly of printing currency and the corruption around the bribery of foreign officials to win money printing contracts, put it in conflict with the ideals of gold. Its agenda is printing money and setting the its interest rate. The Treasury on the other hand seems to have the historical role of caretaker of the assets of the nation and it is that role, other than issuing new government debt, that I think is more appropriate and more likely to be able to receive instruction from the government.

Edit: I want to add that the RBA is an agency of the Treasury. I guess they could use the RBA as a delegated custodian where the Treasury doesn't have facilities, but the RBA does not had good form in gold management.
 
AngloSaxon said:
As a shareholder in a precious metals producer I object strongly to any money being taken in tax that should end up in my pocket.

Yet more sovereign risk in Australian mining...

** Please note I do not want to derail this petition thread into a tax conversation **
Click to expand...

Good point! What if the suggestion is changed to something like "the efficiency of collecting taxes payable from precious metal mining company in the refined metals extracted." What's the point of having those companies pay taxes in fiat currency when they can provide what is sought directly?
 
mmm....shiney! said:
Looks great gino, got my support, I would suggest 2 changes, instead of buying precious metals I would just keep it to and specify gold, and clarify the tax payment as all tax and govt fees payable to the Comm govt be paid in kind by gol by gold. This may be difficult as most mining companies dont refine, but it could apply to all businesses deriving income from gold bullion.
Click to expand...

I stated out just with Gold only but couldn't really justify not including the total PM complex. After all they each have currency symbols. I like the idea of a strategic store of Silver, etc. along with gold, it is a diversification really, but only applies to the collection of taxes from those mining PMs.

Neither did I want to be too prescriptive, they employ specialists that should be able to make appropriate decisions once given instruction. The intent of "return the gold from the BOE" and "accumulate more" is what is important I think.
 
boston said:
Thought that this may be of interest to this topic.

http://www.clrg.info/2010/07/public...ive-express-your-will-with-a-peoples-mandate/
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It doesn't have to be one or the other. If you would like to pursue a Public Mandate please do.

That article does make a good point of the degree of public awareness of the issue being important for a petition's success.

Petitions are useful in some situations, they are often used within Parliament, and can sometimes be effective when enough public awareness and public pressure is focused upon the issue at hand.
Click to expand...

Hopefully, with a completed petition, there will be ideas on how to address this.
 
The petition with suggestions incorporated:

To the Honourable President and members of the Senate in Parliament assembled:

The petition of the undersigned shows: (state grievance or subject of complaint)

That in the increasingly uncertain global financial circumstances, Australians are very concerned about the financial stability of the Commonwealth of Australia and the counter-party risk associated with holding national assets in financially distressed countries like the UK that have an increasingly negative credit rating outlook. We are concerned that the increasingly aggressive monetary policies of international Central Banks to debase their currencies through programs that amount to rampant money printing is:

1) Impacting the Australian currency by raising its comparative value and reducing the international competitiveness of our export industries;
2) Undermining the basis of trust in the International Currency Regime that has been the historic hallmark of the increasing affluence of developed economies since the Second World War, while increasing international tensions;
3) Increasingly seeing developing nations seeking to protect the wealth realised in their development by diversifying their foreign currency reserves through active accumulation initiatives of gold by their central banks. These countries include China, Russia and India;
4) Forcing both mature and emerging nations to prudently repatriate their national gold reserves from the historical financial centres of London and New York back to their own soil in increasing numbers. Countries reported to have or are undertaking such repatriation efforts include Germany, Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico, Romania, Azerbaijan, Libya and Iran;
5) Increasingly seeing concerned citizens of nations around the globe petition their governments to audit and account for their gold reserves. Countries with such initiatives include USA, Netherlands, Switzerland and Australia;
6) Seeing the international investment strategies hedging the risk of devaluing global currencies by investing in agricultural and industrial commodities, precious metals and other tangible assets that will push inflationary effects into the real economy; and
7) Increasing the likelihood that an alternate international reserve currency will be eventually adopted to replace the US dollar, which will be wholly or partially backed by gold as a necessity for restoring confidence in an independent reference of value. Potential alternatives reported and discussed in recent times include the SDR of the IMF and the Chinese national currency.

Your petitioners ask that the Senate:(state the action required)

Establish initiatives for the Commonwealth of Australia to:
a) Remove the conflict of interest of the Reserve Bank of Australia between its role as national gold custodian and issuer of the national currency, by transferring the role of National Gold Custodian to the Treasury of the Commonwealth of Australia in Canberra.
b) Repatriate its gold reserves from London back to Australia to be held on Australian soil;
c) Begin a program of accumulating gold and other precious metal reserves at the Treasury, considering the efficiency of collecting taxes payable from precious metal mining companies in the refined metals they extract.

Name Address Signature
(To be collected by electronic petition)
Click to expand...
 
It's good and I like it. However to make it more professional and politically acceptable, I'd recommend using less "extreme" or "polarizing" words. Basically tone down the superlatives to read more neutral, unbiased and scientific.

For instance let us take this sentence:

"We are concerned that the increasingly aggressive monetary policies of international Central Banks to debase their currencies through programs that amount to rampant money printing is"

Might be better to write as:

"We are concerned that the current monetary policies of international Central Banks, such as increasing the printing of money, are debasing their currencies. It is also:"

I understand you're trying to make a point and feel passionate about all this, but an official submission should not be overly passionate or emotional. It detracts from the debate and people might dismiss you out of hand as extremist. Hence my suggestion of not using words such as "rampant" and "aggressive".

But overall it reads very well and I'll support it.
 
Gino said:
I stated out just with Gold only but couldn't really justify not including the total PM complex. After all they each have currency symbols. I like the idea of a strategic store of Silver, etc. along with gold, it is a diversification really, but only applies to the collection of taxes from those mining PMs.

.
Click to expand...

Gold is the only reserve asset
 
Definitely should be run through the hands of a professional copy writer before submission - might as well deliver a polished message.

Not a criticism - more of a practical measure to take, get someone independent to run their eyes over the wording.
 
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