One Nation submitted a motion to disallow Labor’s Competition and Consumer (Industry Codes—Cash Acceptance) Regulations 2025.
These regulations are misleading because it allows most businesses to refuse cash. It only requires cash acceptance at supermarkets and petrol stations for purchases under $500 between 7 am and 9 pm, while providing further exemptions for rural towns lacking banks or ATMs.
Cash is vital for cultural customs (such as Lunar New Year and wedding traditions) and essential for the quarter of Australians who are digitally excluded or affected during internet outages, whereby ALL Australians have to rely on cash.
Labor, Liberals and the Nationals are all pushing a cashless agenda because they receive substantial political donations from the big four banks.
— March | Senate Speech
Transcript
Senator Roberts: One Nation has submitted a motion to disallow Labor’s Competition and Consumer (Industry Codes—Cash Acceptance) Regulations 2025. These regulations are dishonestly promoted as mandating cash; yet, in a display of rank deceit, these regulations allow every business in the country to not accept cash, unless they’re a supermarket or a petrol station, for amounts under $500, and then only from 7 am to 9 pm—outside that, to not take cash. There’s a further exemption for rural towns without a bank or ATM, which, these days, is most towns. Businesses do not have to take cash.
In the last parliament, the Liberals and Labor tried to ban cash, and were defeated when One Nation and Labor’s ethnic branches were opposed. Labor is now trying to sneak in a cash ban through regulation. Chinese and Vietnamese give cash during Lunar New Year. Greeks pin cash gifts to wedding dresses. Labor is wiping out all these beautiful customs—gone! Not only is cash cultural for many Australians; a quarter of our people are digitally excluded, yet the Canberra bubble never understands. When the internet goes down, that figure is 100 per cent excluded from cash. Without cash what are people to do in an internet outage? Is the uniparty of the Liberals, Labor and Nationals beholden to the banks because it accepts huge donations from banks? In 2022-23, Westpac donated $193,000; the Commonwealth Bank, $174,000; ANZ, $91,000; and NAB, $138,000.
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