By TONY MOBILIFONITIS
HOW does a modern-day bank board earn moral brownie points? In the case of Bendigo and Adelaide bank it appears that they scan the social media of their thousands of account holders and find an allegedly “unsavoury person” like young Victorian Michael Nelson, a national socialist, aka Nazi.
Nelson has been sacrificed on the bank’s most holy altar of DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) after being politely informed that he is no longer an account holder. This action has apparently given the bank board members warm inner glows as the shareholders and public learn of this righteous deed.
The fact that young Mr Nelson was excluded from the bank because of his diverse political belief and denied equitable treatment as a customer (with no criminal convictions) apparently doesn’t matter. Is that because some people are more diverse, equal and inclusive than others? We do know that the bank wrote him a letter informing him he could not remain an account holder because of his “unsatisfactory conduct” – tut, tut.
Nelson and his friend Nathan Bull raised eyebrows when they stood outside the State Library of Victoria on June 6th, grinning broadly and giving one of those unmentionable salutes in front of a Victoria Police contingent. Whether you like it or not, the two young blokes obviously got a kick out of the stunt.
“As a result of a recent internal review conducted by the Bank and careful consideration, we have determined that we are unable to continue providing you with banking and financial services. This decision has been made in order to protect the Bank’s legitimate interests,” read the letter to Nelson, which was reportedly unsigned.
The relevant clause, 16.4, states that the bank may close an account at any time due to “unsatisfactory conduct”, which it says includes behaviour that is “defamatory, harassing, threatening to any person”, or “promotes or encourages physical or mental harm of any person”.
We are not aware of Victorians keeling over in the streets with shock or suffering mass medical conditions upon seeing the two young men do the notorious salute, that some dim-witted politicians on both sides of the aisle want to ban, apparently at the instigation of some prominent people among an religious-ethnic group that periodically whines about “rising anti-semitism”.
Victoria police announced they would investigate to determine whether any offences were committed by the pair under the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act, as well as any other associated offences.
Meanwhile, we suggest the banks pull their heads in and stop pretending to be paragons of virtue under that totalitarian DEI system described by Wikipedia as “organisational frameworks which seek to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people, particularly groups who have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination on the basis of identity or disability.”
Of course many people read between the lines of such drivel, knowing full well it predominantly means persecuting anyone who opposes the global cultural-Marxist gender identity movement and discriminating in favour of those from that movement with jobs, promotions, rainbow days and board positions.
So, this entire notion of singling out some “unsavoury” political dissident and flicking them off your customer list, his gross hypocrisy of the highest order. Corporate boards should just stick with the basics of obeying the law – not defrauding, not misleading, not stealing and generally doing the right thing.
We know that corporate boards are often not the paragons of virtue and can even indulge in criminal behaviour. Take the case of Ericsson, the very big global company that previously employed Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s current chairwoman Jaquie Hey before she joined her current board in addition to the board of Cricket Australia.
Dare we mention that Ericsson was accused as being a major player of dirty business in Iraq in the years 2011 to 2019. We not suggesting that Ms Hey had a part in this scandal, but merely make the point that big corporations need to keep their own noses clean before picking on a customer who did something embarrassing.
A leaked internal investigation report obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed Ericsson made tens of millions of dollars in suspicious payments over nearly a decade to sustain its business in Iraq, financing slush funds, trips abroad for defence officials and payoffs through middlemen to corporate executives and possibly terrorists.
“The internal investigation describes a pattern of bribery and corruption so widespread, and company oversight so weak, that millions of dollars in payments couldn’t be accounted for – all while Ericsson worked to maintain and expand vital cellular networks in one of the most corrupt countries in the world. The review, which has not been made public, covers the years 2011 to 2019,” the ICIJ reported.
Such an example should dissuade banks and other public companies from the disturbing trend of pretending to be arbiters of public morality and punitive agents acting against “incorrect” political beliefs. In the case of Bendigo Adelaide Bank cancelling Mr Nelson’s account, they are clearly a party to that trend of recent years.
In 2022, Tristan Van Rye aka “Triccy”, the well known leader of the anti-Covid tyranny protest marches for The People’s Revolution in Brisbane, was debanked by both the Commonwealth Bank and BankWest. Van Rye is not a national socialist, just an outspoken Aussie standing up for basic freedoms and rights such as our common law right to informed consent to medical treatment.
Bankers, who like bureaucrats tend not to harbour independent, creative thoughts, take orders from the WEF and its crypto-fascist enforcers of the global DEI ideology, also recently moved against the British populist politician Nigel Farage.
The elite Coutts bank gave Farage the flick partly because the bank’s “reputational risk committee” did not think that continuing to have Mr Farage as a client was “compatible with Coutts given his publicly-stated views that were at odds with our position as an inclusive organisation”. Oh how original. Who would have thought.
Farage however, didn’t take this lying down and with support from prominent people including (surprisingly) Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, he was able to force an investigation and the resignation of not only the Coutts chief executive, but also the CEO of bank’s owner NatWest. How about that, Ms Hey?
A related move happened in February 2022 when the grubby little Canadian PM Justin Trudeau ordered banks to freeze en masse the accounts of people linked to the trucker protests across the country. The truckers had occupied the capital Ottawa for nearly a month in a protest against Covid vaccine mandates.
More than two years later the truckers got their day in a court, which had the good sense to rule that Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act to end the protest was an unjustified infringement of civil rights, including the protection against unreasonable search and seizure and in some instances, of freedom of expression.
As noted by the economics and finance blogger Dr Gerry Brady, there is currently no law in Australia against debanking, but in June last year Australian government regulator AUSTRAC warned that banks should consider federal, state and territory anti-discrimination legislation before choosing to cease services.
Dr Brady also noted the case of Nelson, who he described as “a young Australian nationalist with no criminal history who has been “debanked”, along with many of his friends, due to his political views.
Dr Brady reproduced Nelson’s comment on social media: “We have a system that forces us to have no independence over what we earn, declare everything we earn to the government, pay taxes upon taxes on everything you make, buy, sell, and keep your oh-so-precious savings in a privately owned Jewish-run bank that partakes in evil parasitic behavior (usury), all whilst paying a monthly fee to use their services.” Hard-hitting, and quite eloquent commentary, we might say, although we are not aware of that bank being particularly “Jewish run”.
“And all this so they can kick you to the curb the second you decide to stray away from their groupthink! But them shutting down my bank account is ultimately a nothing-burger; it does not bother me. What bothers me is the apathy of the White Australian people who do absolutely nothing whilst institutions like this walk all over them, advocate against their economic and moral interests, roll over billions of dollars a year, all while they face more economic hardship in the name of progress.”
Noticer News asked Bendigo Bank on what specific grounds Nelson’s account was closed, who made the final decision, how many debankings were done each year, and how many paedophiles, serious criminals, non-citizens and illegal immigrants still had accounts with the bank, but did not receive a response. We doubt they would dare comment to CairnsNews either.
Last month Victorian male prostitute Matthew Roberts settled an anti-discrimination case against financial services providers Mint Payments and its acquirer First Data Merchant Solutions Australia after filing a lawsuit alleging the companies had unlawfully discriminated against him by declining his application for an EFTPOS machine due to his “occupation”.
So, how ironic, or is it perhaps somewhat appropriate, that it might take a male prostitute to knock some sense into Australia’s “dazzled by DEI” corporate banking sector?
