- Senator Malcolm Roberts' motion to disallow the Treasurer's cash acceptance mandate regulation will be voted on in the Senate on Tuesday
- The current mandate only applies to large supermarket and fuel station chains for transactions up to $500, exempting 98% of businesses
- The regulation received a low adequate grade from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet's Office of Impact Analysis
- The mandate was intended to work alongside a policy ensuring affordable cash access nationwide, which hasn't been developed yet
- Proposed solutions include designating cash access as an essential service and investigating a government bank operating through post offices
On Tuesday the Senate will vote on Senator Malcolm Roberts’ motion to disallow the Treasurer’s regulation for a cash acceptance mandate.
The Citizens Party is organising concern Australians to contact their Senators to urge them to support the motion to disallow this mandate.
"The mandate is a scam", ACP Chairman and spokesman Robert Barwick says.
The idea started off as a bill introduced by Andrew Gee, Bob Katter and Dai Le to save cash use by mandating its acceptance for transactions up to $10,000 by all businesses, with specific, reasonable exemptions.
This would have been similar to cash acceptance mandates overseas, including mandates introduced recently in Scandinavian countries that hurtled recklessly down the cashless path, only to regret it, and are now working to re-establish cash infrastructure.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers, however, weakened the idea into a fake mandate that exempts 98 per cent of businesses, only applies to large supermarket and fuel station chains, and only for transactions up to $500.
In truth it could hasten the demise of cash, rather than save it, which would create economic turmoil for many Australians, especially in the regions where internet and phone connectivity is less reliable.
Even the businesses it applies to can seek exemptions, and they already are: the Australian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association (ACAPMA), which represents fuel retailers the mandate applies to, has notified its members as to how to apply for exemptions.
It is such poor public policy that even the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Office of Impact Analysis gave the policy scoping behind the regulation the second lowest grade of “adequate”, just above “insufficient” and below “good practice” and “exemplary”.
A Treasury official admitted in December that the Chalmers’ mandate wasn’t supposed to stand alone, but to work alongside another policy to ensure affordable access to cash around Australia.
That policy hasn’t been developed yet, but Chalmers pushed ahead and imposed his fake mandate through regulation starting on 1 January.
Real solution
If the Senate votes for the motion to disallow Chalmers’ regulation, the government will be forced back to the drawing board to look at real solutions.
The solution is already on the table, contained in the recommendations of the Senate inquiry into bank closures in regional Australia, which called on the government to:
• Designate access to banking and cash as essential services;
• Establish an expert panel to investigate re-establishing a government bank, including one that operates in Australia’s 4,000 plus post offices.
Cash is declining because the major banks want to get rid of it and force all transactions through their system so they can take a cut; a new government bank like the original Commonwealth Bank would support cash transactions and availability, and make it convenient for all businesses to accept, deposit, and withdraw for floats.
About us:
The Citizens Party is a federally registered political party founded in 1988. It campaigns for economic and national sovereignty, by which it means making the government accountable to the people of Australia, instead of being beholden to vested corporate interests on economic policy, and submissive to foreign governments on foreign policy. Although the Citizens Party has not had any candidates elected to Parliament, it has achieved many parliamentary inquiries and collaborated with sitting politicians to introduce a number of bills, all related to banking issues. The party achieved the Senate inquiry into bank closures in regional Australia, participated in every hearing, and testified on its policy of a government post office bank as the solution to regional bank closures, which was reflected in the final report.
Contact details:
Robert Barwick
National Chairman and spokesman
Australian Citizens Party
