Andy Schmulow isn’t your typical Senate hopeful. The associate professor of law, recently granted leave from the University of Wollongong, is contesting the upcoming federal election under the Australian Citizens Party banner. His focus is New South Wales, where six Senate spots are up for grabs. Known for his outspoken critics of corporate overreach, Schmulow has made public banking and democratic reform the cornerstones of his campaign—arguing that democracy bends when balance-sheets boom.
Schmulow’s conversion from expert witness to candidate has been years in the making. During the 2018 banking royal commission he denounced “wilful misconduct” in retail lending. Last year he tore into PwC for leaking confidential tax advice. Now, as the Australian Financial Review reports, he argues that “big companies are too powerful and corrupting democracy’s foundations.”
That alternative is the proposed Aussie Post Bank. Run through more than 4,000 post-office counters, it would accept deposits under a full government guarantee, funnel low-cost credit into manufacturing and family farms, and offer cash-handling in towns the majors have deserted. A companion bill would split deposit-taking from trading, echoing America’s old Glass–Steagall Act, and scrap “bail-in” rules that allow failing banks to convert deposits to equity. “People must know their life savings are safe,” he says whenever a microphone appears.
Housing, inevitably, dominates stump speeches. Mortgage stress in western Sydney has hit record highs and vacancy rates hover near one per cent. In a 90-minute conversation with analyst Martin North on 18 March, Schmulow laid the blame on “two decades of bubble-chasing by banks and the politicians who took their donations.”
He wants a trigger law that would pause foreclosures if interest rates or unemployment smash through danger zones, buying time for households while the government restructures failing lenders. Critics call the idea unworkable; supporters counter that the United States adopted temporary foreclosure moratoria during the pandemic without collapsing its credit market.
Immigration is another flashpoint. The Citizens Party platform supports a high intake yet insists newcomers should be settled across regional Australia rather than funnelled into Sydney and Melbourne. Schmulow argues that population policy has been reactive for too long and that the present housing squeeze is the bill coming due. Humane refugee processing and an end to offshore detention round out the plank—positions that place him left of Labor on human rights and right of the Coalition on decentralisation.
Whether any of it wins a seat is another matter. At the 2022 poll the Citizens drew 14,419 first-preference votes in NSW—just 0.30 per cent, or about one-fiftieth of a Senate quota.
ABC election analyst Antony Green tips two seats apiece for Labor and the Coalition and a near-certain return for the Greens’ Mehreen Faruqi, leaving a final spot likely fought out between the Coalition’s third candidate and One Nation’s Warwick Stacey.
To prevail, Schmulow would need either an unprecedented lift in the primary vote or a snow-drift of preferences from a crowded micro-party field that includes Craig Kelly’s Libertarian ticket, Legalise Cannabis, the Jacqui Lambie Network, and a brace of single-issue outfits.
Schmulow shrugs at the arithmetic. “The campaign itself matters,” he tells community radio. He points to the 192,000 letters of complaint lodged with the royal commission and says those voices still feel unheard. His solution is to choke corporate money at the source: an outright ban on donations from companies, unions and peak bodies. Only individual voters would be allowed to give, capped at $3,000 a year. Critics from the major parties mutter about “free-speech concerns”; Schmulow replies that the present system looks more like paid speech.
Business groups do not hide their irritation. The Australian Banking Association insists branch closures reflect digital demand and warns a Post Bank would “risk billions of taxpayer dollars duplicating private infrastructure.” The Business Council brands the donation ban “performative populism.” Yet among mortgage-stressed borrowers the story lands differently. Outside a community centre in Penrith a 33-year-old teacher, queueing for a cost-of-living forum, says she plans to colour Schmulow high on her ballot “because at least he’s angry for us.”
Schmulow’s opponents are betting that anger will fade by polling day. The Liberal–National ticket fronts with senator Andrew Bragg, hoping his super-fund reform profile outweighs disquiet over branch closures. Labor’s Tony Sheldon, a former transport-union chief, talks cost-of-living relief but stops short of public banking. Faruqi presses climate and integrity themes while One Nation targets outer-suburban discontent with immigration. Watching from the sidelines, former independent Nick Xenophon quips that “the Citizens and the Greens are fighting for the same protest vote but from opposite ends of town.”
Money is tight. The Citizens Party relies on crowd-funding and volunteer letter-box drops while the majors splash television ads during prime-time footy. Schmulow’s campaign manager says they have budgeted a small amount—barely enough for corflutes, fuel and a short digital run. Yet the candidate seems unfazed, rolling his own lit-leaflets and fitting press interviews between discipline-of-law lectures.
Election-night victory remains a lottery, yet influence can take subtler forms. Should a hung Senate emerge, cross-bench votes become currency. Even without a seat, a public-bank motion tabled by a Greens or Lambie senator might quote Schmulow’s research. The major banks, seldom shy about lobbying, have reason to watch.
For now the bank-basher keeps pacing the footpath outside that deserted branch. Cars goose past, a screen door rattles, and he pauses to greet a pensioner collecting her mail. “Imagine this is your bank counter,” he says, pointing at the locked doors. “Then imagine it was never shut.” The woman nods, tucks the leaflet into her trolley and walks on. Whether those fleeting exchanges ripple all the way to Canberra will be known when the bottom of the Senate tally sheet finally scrolls past his name.
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