The Aussie dollar is going online and many Aussies feel this threatens the future of physical notes and coins - our legal currency. Cash is safe, private, reliable and surcharge-free. Cash is great for budgeting and keeping in control of your own money and information.

Now the Reserve Bank is planning to trial of a new eAUD - a central bank digital currency for Australia:

"Interested industry participants will be invited to develop specific use cases that demonstrate how a central bank digital currency could be used to provide innovative and value-added payment and settlement services to households and businesses." (RBA Media Release 9/8/22)

This is a currency that exists only in digital form, online and in mobile wallets. But 95% of Aussies don't believe we need a digital $A and 99 per cent of Australians say they want a government guarantee that cash will always be available, according to our recent survey of 20,000 Australians.

78 per cent say accessing cash is getting more difficult in their own local area.

Now a parliamentary petition is asking for our right to use physical cash banknotes and coins to be enshrined in law. The petition states:

As Australian citizens we should be concerned about the disadvantages of a Central Bank Digital Currency.

Traceability: In the case where physical cash is eliminated entirely this eliminates our ability to transact in a fully anonymous manner.

Negative Rates: With CBDCs, you cannot withdraw your digital tokens and hold them under the mattress. If there is no option for physical cash this gives central banks ability to implement negative interest rates.

Programmability: CBDCs give central banks a unique opportunity to make money “programmable”. For example: Expiration, with a direct relationship with your central bank, CBDCs could permit a currency expiration policy. Your money could be programmed so that if you don’t spend the $5000 in your account by next Saturday, it will expire.

Personalised monetary policy: With a bank of Big Data on individual spending habits, coupled with digital identification infrastructure, the central bank will have enough information to tailor its monetary policy personally. For example if it is known that lower earners have a higher propensity to consume, stimulus can be directly delivered to those people. Personalised monetary policy could even become politicised. A government could segment its voters, identify communities where it is behind in polls, and deliver stimulus to these groups.

Petition Request: We therefore ask the House to enshrine the use of cash in law.

Please sign the petition by following this link to the Parliament of Australia website. NOTE: To sign this petition you have to verify your signature by clicking on a link emailed to you.

This is not our petition, this petition is sponsored by Daniel Warner but we have been posting in support of this petition on the Cash Welcome Facebook page and Instagram channel.

Please Follow and Like us to support our right to access and use cash.

Thanks

Jason Bryce