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May 22nd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Union leader Paul Howes wants the federal government to pull banks into line on interest rates by forcing them to match the central bank’s rate moves.
The Australian Workers Union boss says the nation’s banks are being protected from “genuine” competition by government policy, but they can ignore the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in setting interest rates and act as a “de facto cartel”.
“We have to ask the question, with the growing power of the banks, has the RBA actually lost control of monetary policy?” Mr Howes said at the National Press Club in Canberra on Tuesday.
“It’s time for an active government to pull the financial services sector back into line.”
Mr Howes suggested bank licences be tied to a requirement to mirror RBA rate moves.
Along with more competition in the banking sector, Australia needed better co-operation to develop industry, he said.
He called for the government to co-operate with business to create a policy that leveraged and championed the country’s best industries.
“Have we become a nation that is too scared to take a punt on ourselves?” Mr Howes asked.
“It should be clear that government has a role to play in securing our economic future, but Canberra policymakers seem stuck in the mindset of passive government.”
With a resources boom overshadowing weakness in manufacturing and other sectors, Australia risked ending up with a “hollowed-out” economy and placing all bets on the resources sector.
“We have to fight to save manufacturing,” Mr Howes said in his speech.
South Korea had demonstrated how to transform a national economy through government policy – by picking winners, planning for long-term growth and supporting companies such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai.
Mr Howes also said Labor needed “big” characters and thinkers in the party so it didn’t fall into mediocrity, and former leaders like Mark Latham should be welcomed back.
“It’s time for our movement to be more tolerant of dissent, more tolerant of diversity, and bringing back those lost members and having those fights out internally, so we can actually unite and move forward with a common purpose and policy,” he said.
But he warned the government that rising living costs were a major issue for AWU members.
“It’s at the heart of the anger they feel while trying to provide for their families,” he said.
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