Cash Distribution Framework Bill 2026, Cash Distribution Framework (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2026

Mr VIOLI (Casey) (11:04): It is important that I rise to speak on the Cash Distribution Framework Bill 2026. This is an important discussion for all Australians and many in my community. To be very clear, the coalition is not opposed to this bill.

This bill addresses a significant and genuine example of a monopoly that has been created for a multitude of reasons, but it's important that we get the balance right and make sure that the business involved can be viable and is able to deliver cash to our communities, in particular, our regional communities, where we know the costs just because of geography are more expensive.

We need to make sure that that company is viable; equally, when any company has 90 per cent market share, we need to make sure that they are not looking to price gouge. It becomes even more important when we're talking about cash, which is so essential to how we operate. In my community and across the nation, cash is king, as they like to say.

Deputy Speaker Sharkie, I caught some of your contribution yesterday and I thought it was, as always, a good contribution. The example of your daughter being in Far North Queensland with cyclones and making sure that she had cash on hand was great advice from a mother. It's advice that many in my community live by as well.

In June 2021, my community was caught in the storms that knocked out power for three months for some people. In my household, our driveway was blocked because of trees falling down and we didn't have power for three weeks, and we were lucky. You know it's a bad storm when three weeks makes you one of the lucky ones without power.

Cash became so important to be able to operate in that system. We need to remember and respect that there are a lot of Australians that don't like using credit cards, that don't like using digital payments and that rely on and use cash because it's what they've always used and it's what they want to continue to use. We should respect that, and we need to be really clear that any Australian that wants to use cash should always be able to use cash.

I remember speaking to some members of the national seniors group in my electorate. We were talking about many issues, and they've got stickers to give to businesses that say, 'We'll take cash.' There was a lovely lady that was talking to me about how she uses her cash as her budgeting system, like so many people do. She takes that money out of the bank; she puts the cash aside for bill 1, bill 2 and bill 3; and then she knows that the cash that she has left is what she can spend.

Once she runs out of that money, that is the end of her spending money for that week. That discipline has been instilled in so many people. We need to allow people like that to operate in a cash system.

I also stand here as the shadow minister for the digital economy and cybersecurity, so I spend a lot of time looking at technological opportunities, our digital infrastructure and our cyber-resilience, and there are huge productivity gains in a digital world. I was just meeting with the AmCham alliance and the digital companies that work for them. Digital essentially allows us to move payments across countries and across states to each other instantly, so there are a lot of advantages, particularly when we look at the economic advantages.

I will always be a strong advocate for it, in particular, in my role as the shadow minister for the digital economy. But I want to be really clear, and the coalition's position is really clear: growing the digital economy should not be at the expense of the cash economy. It is not about having a choice between a digital payment and a cash payment; it is about making sure we give that choice to the consumers.

Those that want to use digital payments should absolutely be able to use them, and we should make them as cost-effective as possible. But those that want to use cash should always have the ability to use cash. One of the challenges of the digital economy is that, while it is a lot more efficient and it drives productivity in our economy, it does create some resilience challenges.

If the infrastructure is down, whether it is power or the technology not working at that time, we can see the profound implications for the community, so we need to invest in that digital resilience and build that redundancy. One of the best resilience redundancy mechanisms we can build for the Australian people is cash and making sure that it's still available and viable, which is why this bill is important.

The reality is that part of that is also building communications resilience and making sure that those phone towers can be relied on. If the phone towers are working in communities, it means our phones are working to get help, but it does also mean that our payment systems can continue to operate. This cash mechanism is crucial, but investing in the resilience of communications, particularly in regional and rural communities, keeps people safe and allows people to use payments as well.

One of the challenges when it comes to resilience and the digital economy is that, while we might have cash at home, if our town has lost power and that supermarket does not have a back-up generator, we actually can't use it, because so many businesses are reliant on the digital asset of their register and their EFTPOS machine to make sure they can actually run the transactions.

We learnt that in Victoria when there was an outage recently, the V/Line trains were not able to run, and many regional Victorians had to stay in the city because they had no way to get home. That investment in digital infrastructure is linked to this conversation as well. It is important that this bill puts a regulator in charge of our cash distribution system to protect all Australians and to make sure that cash distribution is working for all Australians.

This legislation has taken a while to come. It's legislation that we're supporting, but it would have been nice if it could have been quicker. The ACCC approved a merger between Australia's two largest cash-in-transit companies, Armaguard and Prosegur, in June 2023.

The Albanese Labor government have now waited until August 2026 to act. This delay has caused significant challenges. The government should not have waited three years to build a proper, permanent framework.

In October 2023, Armaguard approached the government, the RBA and the major banks saying that if it didn't get an extra $190 million over three years, it would no longer be viable. By Easter of 2024, the risks were laid bare. Armaguard warned it couldn't keep operating without a large bailout.

Coles paused cash deliveries and limited instore cash withdrawals. Shoppers faced the real prospect of not being able to get or use cash over the long weekend. It took an emergency meeting chaired by the Reserve Bank Governor and a $50 million rescue package from the banks and the major retailers to keep the cash trucks running.

This bill is finally acting. But, again, these issues were there in 2023 and 2024. We are now in 2026.

Importantly, the bill creates an emergency regime so that if a carrier is at risk of collapsing, cash can keep moving across our economy. The regime will be managed by the RBA, with similar powers to what APRA have for the banks and insurance companies. We need to again make sure that we protect this, because cash is king, but we need to acknowledge that imbalance—that it is a lot more expensive to get cash to regional communities than to suburban and metropolitan communities.

We do not want a situation where, because of economics, a business is delivering cash to city locations and not to regional communities. That is why it is a sensible move that we support. However, this bill is focused just on making sure that the cash gets delivered—which is crucial, as I said.

It doesn't do anything to guarantee you can actually spend it when you get to the store. Labor, as always, are very good at creating bills with impressive-sounding names that sound like they're going to fix a problem but that always fall short when you look at the detail. They've done that with their cash payments mandate.

It commenced in January. Again, it sounds very impressive—a cash payment mandate. Most Australians would hear that and think: 'Fantastic, I can go into any store in my community and use cash.

They'll be required to take my cash as a payment.' However, when we go to the detail and get under the headline, that is not true. Labor's so-called cash payment mandate only applies to supermarkets and to fuel and for a total of up to $500 between the hours of 7 am and 9 pm. So too bad if it's 9.05 pm and you've got cash to get some bread and milk from the supermarket.

They can refuse to take that cash. What will happen outside of those hours? If that store so decides, Australians will be left with no options but to use electronic payments.

The government will talk about how the mandate is for essential services such as supermarkets and fuel, absolutely. But staggeringly—and I've had so many people in my community raise this concern with me—Labor's mandate does not allow any Australian, particularly elderly Australians, to pay cash for medicines at the pharmacy. It is staggering that this government sets a mandate, pretends that it covers everything, covers two narrow areas, leaves medicines off and talks about how it covers essentials.

Tell any Australian that needs to go to the pharmacy that their medication is not essential. On top of this, cash only works if you can withdraw it and businesses can bank it. The closure of over 800 bank branches since 2022 has made this considerably more difficult for business owners and elderly Australians in my community and in many regional communities across Australia.

It is deeply concerning that the moratorium on bank closures expires on 31 July 2027 and, as it stands today, the government has no plan for what happens after the moratorium ends. Recently, I got a phone call from my mum, who is a constituent and likes to take advantage of the fact that she can call the member whenever she likes. She lives in Yarra Glen and is concerned about the Commonwealth Bank in Yarra Glen.

She was talking to the teller there, who said they've already reduced hours and, if people don't use the bank, there is a risk that it will not be there in 2027. This is a concern, with the bank being the last bank available in my home town of Yarra Glen. I know many other Australians beyond my mum are concerned about it, but I'm sure she'll be happy to know, now that it's in Hansard, that I do listen to her.

This is the reality of this complication complicated system when it comes to cash. It's about making sure that it's available to Australians. It's about making sure it can get where it needs to go in terms of banks and stores.

We need to make sure that banks are available to those that want to use them, and we need to make sure that it is economical for everyone involved in the ecosystem. While this bill is a good step and we support it, it is an ongoing issue that I'll continue to monitor for my community. I will always be an advocate for the digital economy and the opportunities that it creates for our country, for our individuals and for our businesses.

But, to finish where I started, it is not a question of embracing the digital economy at the expense of the cash economy. It is about making sure that a digital economy works for all Australians, a cash economy works for all Australians and they work together. Ultimately, it is the consumer that has the choice on the payment method that they want to use as they interact with businesses in their community.