Cover art for Battle of the Banks
Published
Aust Scholarly, March 2025
ISBN
9781923267275
Format
Softcover, 242 pages
Dimensions
22.9cm × 15.2cm

Battle of the Banks How Ad Men, Barristers and Bankers Ended Ben Chifley's Boldest Plan by

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After the Second World War, Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley embarked on a radical plan to replace Australia's century-old banking system with a single national bank. The proposal passed into legislation in 1947, igniting a nationwide wave of resistance.

Australia's banking industry launched media campaigns, legal challenges, and coast-to-coast protests to defeat the move. Opposition Leader Robert Menzies and the new Liberal Party opposed the takeover. They harnessed the fury over bank nationalisation to win the first in a series of election triumphs that lasted almost a quarter of a century. Battle of the Banks is the story of the politicians, media magnates, ad men, cartoon characters, feminists, community stirrers and bank clerks who saved Australian banking.

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