We saw Rudd and Swan fronting up to claim, "the Australian People wants its fair share of the mining companies' super profits". Try that on anyone who's held lack lustre shares in companies like BHP for more than a decade.
Money Morning email newsletter today from Kris Sayce points out this old latent Australian legislation:
"Bottom line: if the US government could easily confiscate gold while most of the population still had a concept of sound money, don't you think it will be much easier when 99% of the population has no concept of sound money?
That's what makes a return to gold likely.
And remember, the Australian government, central bankers and bureaucracy prepared for Aussie gold confiscation over 50 years ago...long before the paper-money credit boom of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s...
Australia's 53-Year Confiscation Plan
Part IV of the Banking Act 1959, specifically addresses the conditions where the Australian government can order the confiscation of private gold.
BANKING ACT 1959 - SECT 42
Delivery of gold
(1) Subject to this Part, a person who has any gold in the person's possession or under the person's control, not being:
(a) gold coins the total value of the gold content of which does not exceed the prescribed amount; or
(b) gold lawfully in the possession of that person for the purpose of being worked or used by that person in connexion with the person's profession or trade;
shall deliver the gold to the Reserve Bank, or as prescribed, within one month after the gold comes into the person's possession or under the person's control or, if the gold is in the person's possession or under the person's control on any date on which this Part comes into operation, within one month after that date.
(1A) A person is guilty of an offence if:
(a) the person fails to comply with subsection (1)
In other words, when the Governor-General says so.
Right now, Part IV of the Banking Act isn't in effect. But it's a 'sleeping clause'. In other words, it's not in force until 'the Governor-General is satisfied that it is expedient so to do, for the protection of the currency or of the public credit of the Commonwealth...'
What we're getting at is this. If any government proposes a return to a gold standard, it will be under the government's terms.
And because returning to a gold standard would involve devaluing the currency (leading to a higher nominal gold price), governments would only do this after it has confiscated private gold."
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ba195972/s42.html
Money Morning email newsletter today from Kris Sayce points out this old latent Australian legislation:
"Bottom line: if the US government could easily confiscate gold while most of the population still had a concept of sound money, don't you think it will be much easier when 99% of the population has no concept of sound money?
That's what makes a return to gold likely.
And remember, the Australian government, central bankers and bureaucracy prepared for Aussie gold confiscation over 50 years ago...long before the paper-money credit boom of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s...
Australia's 53-Year Confiscation Plan
Part IV of the Banking Act 1959, specifically addresses the conditions where the Australian government can order the confiscation of private gold.
BANKING ACT 1959 - SECT 42
Delivery of gold
(1) Subject to this Part, a person who has any gold in the person's possession or under the person's control, not being:
(a) gold coins the total value of the gold content of which does not exceed the prescribed amount; or
(b) gold lawfully in the possession of that person for the purpose of being worked or used by that person in connexion with the person's profession or trade;
shall deliver the gold to the Reserve Bank, or as prescribed, within one month after the gold comes into the person's possession or under the person's control or, if the gold is in the person's possession or under the person's control on any date on which this Part comes into operation, within one month after that date.
(1A) A person is guilty of an offence if:
(a) the person fails to comply with subsection (1)
In other words, when the Governor-General says so.
Right now, Part IV of the Banking Act isn't in effect. But it's a 'sleeping clause'. In other words, it's not in force until 'the Governor-General is satisfied that it is expedient so to do, for the protection of the currency or of the public credit of the Commonwealth...'
What we're getting at is this. If any government proposes a return to a gold standard, it will be under the government's terms.
And because returning to a gold standard would involve devaluing the currency (leading to a higher nominal gold price), governments would only do this after it has confiscated private gold."
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ba195972/s42.html