ACP Urges Australians To Send Treasury Consultation A Loud Message - Protect cash! - MR 13/10/23

Make a submission! All concerned Australians should send an email or write a physical letter to the consultation, calling for: • Protection of cash, including access and use; • Consideration of legislation to require businesses to accept cash payments; • No forced phase-out of cheques by 2030. To make a submission, click the link for the Treasury consultation website with details of the legislation and how to submit: https://treasury.gov.au/consultations/c2023-452114 Alternatively, simply email the consultation at this address: paymentsconsultation@treasury.gov.au Or write a physical letter to this address: Sally Etherington Director Payments Strategy and Policy Unit Financial System Division Treasury Langton Cres Parkes ACT 2600 Until the 1st of November, Australians have an opportunity to submit to Treasury’s consultation on a new bill to regulate digital payments in the payments system. This is an opportunity to send a very strong message to the government: whatever you do to regulate new digital payments, you must also protect the only payment system that is 100 per cent certain, reliable, and private—cash! Treasury’s consultation on the exposure draft legislation for proposed reforms to the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998 runs until 1 November 2023. The consultation page explains: “Following consultation in June 2023, the government is updating the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998 to ensure regulators and government can address new risks related to payments as the provision of payments evolves and increases in complexity.” As yet the Australian Citizens Party has no opinion on the specific proposed reforms, but urges Australians to seize on this opportunity to send a message to the government to protect cash. A loud message is important because while the government repeatedly states it has no plans to get rid of cash, it is allowing the banks to effectively force Australians to go cashless by making it harder and harder to access and use cash. The banks: • impose arbitrary limits on cash with