26/06/2025
“Former federal Coalition minister Simon Birmingham has been appointed as chief executive of the Australian Banking Association, replacing Anna Bligh.
“He is a recognised leader who has had deep involvement in significant and long-lasting policy decisions and actions throughout his career that have helped to shape our country,” said Andrew Irvine, National Australia Bank chief executive and ABA chairman.
“There is a big role to play at a time of very welcome national debate about how we lift our productivity,” Birmingham said in an interview. “And that is not just about productivity of labour, or the efficiency of regulation, but it must also be about the productivity of capital. Clearly, banks have a strong interest in ensuring the regulatory framework is as sufficient as possible, and access to capital is as effective as possible for a strong banking sector and also strong economic growth.”
And
“'Custodians’, by definition, hold customers’ securities for safekeeping, in addition to offering other services such as account administration and collection of dividends and interest payments, for a fee.
Unfortunately, it is practically impossible to track down the identities of those underlying shareholders through the various financial structures that hold shares for each other and on behalf of each other.”
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More payback from the swamp.
Birmingham has never worked in a bank, nor does he have any commercial experience having only been a staffer, lobbyist and politician.
He backed in net zero to the hilt. So much for productivity reform.
Anyone who thinks there is a degree of separation between the banks and the government should think again.
Banks have the government in their back pocket. It’s why they hire former politicians like Anna Bligh and Simon Birmingham to keep it that way.
It’s also why Jim Chalmers refuses to open a public bank so that people can access branches. Our politicians work for banks not for you.
I should also mention that Australian banks are controlled by foreign banks, which is why Keating lifted capital controls in 1985 to allow foreign debt to flood the country.
Not that you will ever know who the owners are because under Australian corporate law, disclosure of nominee accounts are not required.
When I asked about custodians having to disclose their ownership breakout in estimates I got the usual deflection.
It’s typical of how governments are run today. The big end of town runs everything with no transparency.