“I am afraid the ordinary citizen will not like to be told that the banks can and do create money. And they who control the credit of the nation direct the policy of Governments and hold in the hollow of their hand the destiny of the people.” About us
Guiding principle
We are out to interrupt the predictable future for our children.
After leaving university young people will not know a time when they are free from debt. They will not enjoy the free and easy years previous generations had after graduating.
Should they aspire to own their home it will require two incomes to service the loan and decades to pay it off. They will also need to save for their retirement – while raising their children.
This is not the sort of world we wish to pass on to them.
Background
Positive Money New Zealand is a campaign to move New Zealand from a debt-based economy to one that operates with a full reserve in which money has been issued debt-free and interest-free.
This will free the nation and its people from the crippling effects of ever increasing interest bills - that keep the majority of people on the debt treadmill.
The campaign is based on one that has been running in the UK called Positive Money - which started in May 2010 as well as a similiar one in the United States called the American Monetary Institute - which began in 1996.
Positive Money New Zealand began when Sue Hamill and Don Richards had the current debt based system explained to them in 2010, while watching Money as Debt. When they learnt that New Zealand operated under the same system - they customised the UK campaign - to the New Zealand situation.
The Team
Sue Hamill
After returning from three years based in the United Kingdom Sue studied law and then spent 10 years working in publishing. She retrained in 2006 in therapeutic massage.
Sue works full-time as a self-employed massage therapist and maintains a keen interest in health.
Don Richards
Don lives in Newtown in Wellington and is married to Sue. He has two daughters from a previous marriage and became a grandfather for the first time in May 2011.
Don has worked in a number of key industries during times of significant change in New Zealands recent economic history. He was employed by BP Oil New Zealand, working in their Retail Strategy unit during the deregulation of the New Zealand oil industry in the late 1980's.
He also worked for Standards New Zealand in the late 1990's as it grappled with the transition from state funding to the user-pays model. In addition Don worked for the New Zealand Dairy Board, leading up to the formation of Fonterra and beyond. Don currently works for BRANZ (Building Research Association of New Zealand) as their Quality and Environmental Manager.
Don has also taken on a number of community based projects including organising cleanups of Wellington harbour which started in 1997 and continues to this day. In addition he organised street parties for his neighbours and ran a campaign to stop whaling in the southern ocean - called Friends of Tangaroa.