1 - Who will fight for the people

0:00Australian Alert, 30 September 2026, who will fight for the people. Two-thirds of Australian households directly copped another cost of living whack this week, when the Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates to the highest level since 2011. The rate hike hits mortgageures immediately and renters soon after, which based on the RBA's logic, is supposed to suffocate those financially stressed households even more than they already are, so they can't even afford a bunning sausage, and that will magically counteract the rise in fuel prices from the Iran War, and tame Australia's inflation. Or so says RBA Governor Michelle Balok, who is on a salary of $1.195 million, and owns a house outright that she bought in the early 1990s with a mortgage from the RBA, on which she paid 7% when all other Australians were paying 14%, so she's definitely in touch with how interest rates affect households. Thanks to the Citizens' Party, the powers exist right now, by which the

1:00government could order the RBA to lower interest rates to provide cost of living relief to households, and at the same time bring inflation under control. In 2024, Treasurer Jim Charmers tried to legislate away section 11 of the Reserve Bank Act, which gives him veto power over interest rate decisions, and section 36 of the Banking Act, which empowers the RBA to direct the volume of private bank credit. He tried to repeal them, but we stopped him. With those powers there is no excuse for this week's rate rise. Instead, the RBA should stop lying that it has only one tool, and use its other tool, section 36, to order the private banks to reduce lending in areas that are causing inflation, and increase lending in productive areas that would reduce inflation. Short of that, however, there is one sure-fire way to quickly reduce inflation in Australia, which under current policy would allow the RBA to cut interest rates, that is to reduce the price of gas. The price of gas sets the energy price in Australia, which drives the cost of all other

2:05economic activity, but the price of gas on the East Coast is ablatent inexcusable economic crime, in which all the big parties are implicated. Successive Australian governments have allowed consumers to be ripped off by the gas cartel, because they have refused to implement a gas reserve on the East Coast, like Western Australia did in 2006. A gas reserve means Australians get first use of our gas. Since 2006, WA's domestic gas price has remained steady, unaffected by global fluctuations. But the East Coast gas price has tripled, driving many industries out of business, and crushing households through high gas and electricity bills. Australians on the East Coast pay more, for our gas, than consumers in Japan and China pay, for our gas. Directly bought off by the gas cartel, both major parties resisted an East Coast gas reserve, until the Peter Dutton-led Liberals, desperate to win the last election, adopted a gas reserve policy in April 2025.

3:08He was immediately attacked by the gas industry, including his major backer Gina Reinhart, but Dutton appeared to realize that corporations don't vote. Consumers do. Dutton lost of course, but in December last year the Albanese Labor Government also announced a gas reservation scheme. However, as the alert reported last week, the scheme is window dressing, because the complicated fine print shows it is designed not to work. That leaves one nation, which always supported a gas reservation scheme, so much so that Pauline Hanson introduced a bill for one, in March this year. In her speech, Hanson accused the major parties of betrayal and faithfully serving their paymasters in the resources sector. However, within two months, Hanson flipped, from her long standing to Gina Reinhart's. One nation's website posted Gina Reinhart's argument that a gas reservation risks, quote, killing domestic Australian gas companies, end quote, there's only one word for this

4:10backflip. The word Hanson used in March, betrayal. If the government did implement a proper East Coast gas reserve, WA's experience shows that it could reduce the price of gas by two thirds. That would also reduce the price of electricity, dramatically lower inflation, and reduce interest rates. There's no excuse not to do this. Any party that opposes it is siding with corporate profits over the well-being of Australians. The citizens' party will always fight for the people against corporate power, which is why our policy is to never accept, and in fact to ban, corporate donations to political parties.