Andrew Gee Private members bill Keeping Cash Transactions in Australia Bill 2024
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00:00 This morning I introduced my second private members bill into the House of Representatives.
00:04 It's the Keeping Cash Transactions in Australia Bill 2024.
00:09 And the reason that I have introduced that bill to the House
00:14 and the reason that it has the support of my parliamentary colleagues on the crossbench
00:19 but also so many Australians around our great nation
00:23 is because there is real concern that cash and cash transactions
00:28 are being phased out in our country.
00:31 The Reserve Bank of Australia in their survey recently found
00:36 that cash is on the decline.
00:39 Between 2019, the pandemic and 2022
00:43 cash transactions in Australia dropped.
00:46 The amounts dropped from 32% to 16%
00:50 and the value of those transactions stood at 13%.
00:54 All around Australia, people are concerned that cash is being phased out.
00:59 Many seniors are very worried about this because
01:03 for a lot of senior Australians it can be very daunting and difficult and confusing
01:07 to undertake online banking services.
01:11 For many Australians, they value privacy
01:14 and they simply don't want big corporations knowing what they buy.
01:17 Other Australians are worried about the fraud
01:23 and some are worried about the surcharges which are attached to these transactions.
01:28 And it's been estimated that every year
01:31 Australians hand over a billion dollars in surcharges just by tapping on a card.
01:37 And so this bill introduces the requirement
01:41 that businesses must offer to accept cash
01:45 and indeed must accept cash for transactions not exceeding $10,000 in value.
01:51 This bill fairly and squarely keeps cash transactions in Australia
01:57 and I think it's very important for so many people right around our country.
02:01 There are some really important exemptions to those requirements.
02:05 So if it's a security risk, if you don't have change,
02:08 if the state and territory and federal government brings down some laws
02:13 on health requirements, for example during a pandemic, then it doesn't apply.
02:17 But otherwise, businesses must offer to accept cash
02:21 and must indeed accept cash payments if they don't exceed $10,000.
02:25 Because at the moment, there is a hole, there's a void in the law
02:30 and we have legal tender in this country.
02:33 So banknotes are legal tender, coins are legal tender,
02:38 but there is no requirement that businesses must accept cash for transactions.
02:44 All the business has to do is say,
02:46 "I'm not accepting cash before the transaction occurs,"
02:49 and they don't have to accept it.
02:51 And it has sent a chill through many, many areas of our country.
02:55 We also have to remember that in times of natural disaster,
02:58 we have digital outages and we also need to keep in mind
03:02 that in many parts of Australia, digital connectivity is still very, very poor.
03:06 And so cash is still vitally important for our economies.
03:10 The other factor is that people have also contacted me
03:13 and said cash is important for basic stuff like budgeting
03:17 and also teaching the next generation about the importance of financial literacy
03:22 and the value of money.
03:23 So it's for those reasons that I have put this bill into the House today
03:27 and I'm urging every Member of Parliament to support it
03:30 and keep cash transactions in Australia.