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The particular statement under analysis, has it that "Australian money is owned by the Australian Federal Government" Most of us have seen or heard this statement.
No statement could be further from the fact. The determining of the ownership of 'money' is somewhat more complicated.

OWNERSHIP
The person or persons who are in legal possession of the commodity can be termed owners. However, since all money in circulation is on loan, the aforesaid owners are only in temporary possession of a debt (not wealth), that was borrowed somewhere by some body, nationally or globally. As a commodity that is on loan, it must be returned according to the terms of the loan agreement. So in that sense, the institution that created the commodity and loaned it out can be said to be the ultimate owner. This seeming paradox of dual ownership, is the result of all 'money', being on loan, and when it's returned to the institution that created it, not only the debt is cancelled but so is the 'money' itself, which occasions a constant round of further borrowing.

ABOUT INTEREST
Certainly interest has to be paid to the 'creating institution' but obviously this can only be done with more 'loan money'. So basically the same cycle of debt creation and cancellation is enacted. Who may have done the borrowing that pays the interest, is irrelevant to gaining an understanding of our present method of how money is brought into being.

CONTROL
The question, of who is the owner of money, is of little consequence. Whoever at any given time is in possession of the debt-money, is probably the best answer. However, the institution with the bank charter that created the money that it loans always retains control. As a creditor, this banking institution has legal control of the world's finances. The bank’s loan rate, through contraction and expansion, determines the amount of money in circulation at any one time. Thus our global, social, environmental and economic fate hangs in the balance. cyclic boom times, recession and depressions times have not been caused by how industrious or clever or how dumb or lazy we are as a nation. It is entirely a matter of whether or not there is enough money in whatever export marketplace we depend on to by our products. No money, no sales, no sales, we don’t eat, no matter how much we are producing or capable of producing or at what price. Japan has been cutting the price of its products through subsidy for years, it is now in dire financial trouble.

It is this control of national finances, only made possible through the Parliamentary bestowed legal right to create money out of nothing and loan it to governments and industry ad infinitum, that must be overturned.

The right to create money for government expenditure must be returned to governments on a global basis. This money would be created debt free and put into circulation as wages, capital outlay, pensions, unemployment benefits and pay for all government facilities, in other words all that can be construed as government expenditure.

The government would not owe this money to anyone. It is in possession of its own account. Credit money not having to be repaid, would stay in circulation and make financially possible any initiative put forward to halt the present social and global disintegration. Instead we get "the shortage of funds" excuse that says governments and industry do not have the necessary finance for social and environmental reforms as their borrowing capacity is restricted to their ability to service loans. This situation is unfortunately true. Remember however, that all physical resources are available, the only problem is the scarcity of money.


NOT SO MERRY-GO-ROUND
Of course all those in our societies, who have wealth and mistakenly believe that they are benefiting through their ability to manipulate the system, share some control and economic power. They are obviously not yet aware that financial scarcity is responsible for the ongoing deterioration of their environment. Their 'debt money' scarcity, results in, the destructive changes to air, water, food. Ultra -violet radiation, atmospheric warming affects the global climate and the altered environment must be shared by all. Are these folk very bright? Obviously not, yet we allow them to control our lives. However, there may be an upside to this situation. Their apparent unawareness may be useful in our unobtrusive endeavour to and slowly introduce a stable and sustainable alternative currency.

However, I think we should be aware that just the fact of being a member of society, makes us all involuntary or unwitting participants in our own destruction. While ever the present method of producing money remains, so will the status quo. Protesting, blockading, rioting against the symptoms without removing the cause is as useless, as furiously bailing a sinking ship without first fixing the hole in the hull, all we gain is a little more time before it physically goes under.

The ultimate cost of a cycle of production is the wages and salaries that go immediately into circulation as the purchasing power of the consumer. We fondly imagine that this purchasing power should at least enable the producer to recover costs and allow the consumer the ability to buy what has been produced. However, if we had an isolated market place this would be mathematically impossible. The available purchasing power in circulation would be forever less than the cost of production, to the tune of interest and capital payments. So nationally, export markets must be found. Even though local purchasing power is somewhat boosted through the dividends to shareholder's it matters not how little or how much was produced locally there could never be enough local money in a closed economy to purchase all of it. Such is our present situation.