Below is the text of my submission to Senate Committee which is scrutinising a bill currently before the Australian parliament that in my view represents nothing less than an underhanded attempt by the government and Treasury to restrict the use of cash in this country, in preparation of introducing negative interest rates during the next recession.
Dear Committee Members
Submission to Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill 2019
I am an informed and engaged citizen concerned about the effects of this bill. I note that I have never had any connection to any political party or lobby group.
I have thought a lot about this bill, and I believe there is clearly an ulterior purpose to this bill that the government and Treasury have refused to acknowledge.
As Mr Wilkie recently quite rightly pointed out in Parliament, law enforcement agencies already have a plethora of means to clamp down on financial crime, but they seem strangely reluctant to use these laws. https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22legislation/summary/summary.w3p;query=AuthorSpeakerReporterId%3AC2T
Adding yet another piece of legislation for law-enforcement agencies not to utilise will not make one iota of difference to the status quo in that regard.
In my mind there is only one true explanation as to why the government would try to push through in such a hurry this bill and at this point in time. There is no question that should a recession arrive, which seems increasingly likely, the reserve bank does not have many options left with the cash rate already being close to 0. The only way to push interest rates below 0, prevent a bank run, and force people to keep their money in the banking system is by making cash transactions illegal or severely restricting them.
Some time ago the IMF made a clear statement to that effect, and I believe the Australian government is now simply following those instructions: (https://blogs.imf.org/2019/02/05/cashing-in-how-to-make-negative-interest-rates-work/).
The threshold amount of $10,000 might be higher than in some other countries, but alarm bells should be ringing when the government can change that amount simply by regulation. When inevitably the financial system comes crashing down again, and everyone panics, parliamentarians will hardly disallow a hurriedly made regulation to rescue the banking system yet again, at the expense of the people, of course.
Treasury’s cynical response to submissions received to its own consultation on this bill is in itself a very telling warning sign. To call “out of scope” the very issues that lie at the heart of this bill and dismiss concerned citizens in bulk is a brazen but often used political tactic to shut down any debate. (https://youtu.be/Ao-retb1vkA?t=371; also see screenshot below)
The government would do better to finally fix this broken banking and financial system than to once again make the people pay for systemic economic problems.
Introducing Glass-Steagal type legislation would be a significant and obvious step in the right direction.
Instead, this bill, if passed, will seriously undermine citizens’ freedoms and empower the government to implement policies that are not in the interests of the people, but purely in the interests of the government and its masters, the banks.
For these reasons I am opposed to this bill and urge members of parliament to reject the bill.
Jörg Probst, Macquarie Park, New South Wales
