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Public Money Australia believes in a financial system that supports a
fair, productive and sustainable economy.

Reserve Bank of Australia

There is one bank that sits above all others – the Reserve Bank. It is the Government’s Bank and it alone can issue the Australian bank notes (coins are issued by the mint).

In Australia only 3% of money is in the form of currency (notes and coins),  97% of money is created by commercial banks in the form of deposit account balances (electronic ledgers in the bank). Commercial banks create this money when they make loans and the money is effectively cancelled out when the loans are repaid. Therefore the creation of money in Australia is in the hands of the commercial banks not government or publicly  accountable institutions.

This link from the Reserve Bank helps explain how money is created. What is Money? | Explainer | Education | RBA

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The Four Pillars

These banks made total after tax profits of $29.9 billion in FY2024 (about $3,000 per household).

The fundamental problem is that modern financial systems left to themselves inevitably create debt in excessive quantities, and in particular debt that does not fund new capital investment but rather the purchase of already existing assets, above all real estate.
Lord Adair Turner

The process by which money is created is so simple that the mind is repelled.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Of all the many ways of organising banking, the worst is the one we have today.
Sir Mervyn King, former Governor, Bank of England

It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.
Henry Ford

The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but it is the Government’s greatest creative opportunity.
Abraham Lincoln

The Magic Money Tree, Fact or Fiction?

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