Citizens Electoral Council of Australia
Media Release 12th of December 2008
Negative equity explosion demands Homeowners and Bank Protection Bill
The explosion in Australian households facing the prospect of negative equity in their homes can only be solved by the
Homeowners and Bank Protection Bill, advised Citizens Electoral Council leader Craig Isherwood today.
Mr Isherwood was responding to the projection by RMIT’s Housing and Urban Research Institute that next year 300,000
households faced owing more debt on their homes, than the homes will be worth.
“It is time to face the fact that the debt burden killing our households is unpayable,” Mr Isherwood declared.
“The government must put the welfare of the households ahead of the worthless paper they are slaving to pay off, and
reorganise the debt, by passing the CEC’s Homeowners and Bank Protection Bill.
“The CEC proposed this Bill over a year ago, and if it had been passed, these families wouldn’t be in this mess.”
The Homeowners and Bank Protection Bill is the Australian version of a bill proposed by the world’s leading economist,
Lyndon LaRouche, in the United States, to solve the mortgage crisis-triggered financial collapse.
The Bill provides for:
an immediate moratorium on home foreclosures, which also covers tenants and farmers;
putting the nation’s banks into receivership or administration (the equivalent of the U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection) in order to write off their unpayable debts, including their trillions in derivatives, and reorganise their
books;
a write-down of the debt levels of households to reflect the true, non-speculative value of the properties, and the
ability of the occupants to pay.
Mr Isherwood said, “The longer Parliament delays the passage of this Bill, the worse the crisis is going to get.
“Falling interest rates will not save households; the collapse of China is driving massive job losses, which in turn is
driving up mortgage defaults and evictions and driving down the property market.
“I urge all Australians: if you want to save your home, and your nation, join the CEC and support the fight for this
bill,” he appealed.
ends