Andrew Gee announces private members bill to keep cash transactions

The Senior

Andrew Gee Private members bill Keeping Cash Transactions in Australia Bill 2024

Transcript

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.

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