Scott Morrison’s Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill 2019 is a fraudulent assault on the freedoms of Australians.

Banning cash transactions over $10,000 will not end the tax evasion and money laundering of the “black economy”, but will strip individuals of their right to privacy in financial affairs, and trap them in private banks, unable to escape policies such as “bail-in” and negative interest rates.

It is outrageous that this cash ban is a recommendation of one of the big four global accounting firms, KPMG, which wrote the 2017 Black Economy Taskforce report and is already lobbying for the limit to be reduced to $2,000.

KPMG and its fellow big four firms are complicit in the overwhelming majority of tax evasion and money laundering, which is perpetrated by their clients in multinational banks and corporations, not by individuals using cash.

If this cash ban is enacted, the government clearly intends more restrictions, as the law has been drafted so that the exemptions to the ban, such as for withdrawing cash from a bank, can be removed by the Minister at any time. The private banks already impose unreasonable restrictions on the ability of Australians to access their own cash.

We the undersigned call on Parliament to:

• respect the right of Australians to use cash for privacy and as an alternative to the banks;
• scrap this bill and the cash ban policy; and
• crack down on the real black economy by going after multinational banks and corporations, the big four accounting firms, and the tax havens.