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

Mr MONCRIEFF (Hughes) (12:17): This is cash. Don't be afraid. Don't be scared.

It won't hurt you. Australian cash is iconic. Our polymer banknotes are one of the country's most successful technological innovations.

Following the joint development of new banknote technology in Australia by the Reserve Bank and the CSIRO, Australia issued a polymer $10 commemorative banknote in January 1988. The successful issue of the $10 commemorative banknote to mark the bicentenary of British settlement in Australia was a world first, and it set the scene for a new era of banknotes. Especially when compared to other countries that still use fragile, indistinguishable and lifeless paper for their currency, Australians are rightly proud of the unique and recognisable cash that displays iconic Australians including one of the greatest Australians to ever live General Sir John Monash, as well as Edith Cowan, Banjo Paterson and David Unaipon.

From lobsters to pineapples, cowboys and prawns and even to the Granny Smith herself, the 'hungee', the Australian Labor government is making sure that Australians can continue to use cash in all its varieties for the foreseeable future. We know that many Australians still rely on cash for the transactions that are essential to everyday life. Last year, the RBA found that roughly one in 10 Australians still use cash for most of their purchases, especially older Australians, with about 15 per cent of payments being settled with cash.

Protecting cash is not just essential for the smooth functioning of our economy; it is also about putting people first by protecting choice, inclusion an access. No-one should be left behind in the payment system. Many of us knew, as kids, the rewarding feeling of diligently completely household chores in eager anticipation of cold, hard cash.

For some, it's a core memory and a lesson about the value of work and reward for effort. Many of us have the memory of a grandparent slipping a folded $10 note into our pocket with a cheeky imperative not to tell Mum. Maybe in 10 or 15 years time—who knows?—this common childhood experience will be replaced by a pop-up notification of an electronic transfer or a buzz from a bank to the microchip in our brain.

But that isn't where we are now. For some, in the age of online banking, this may be all cash represents: a historical curiosity no less quaint than the spinning jenny, which helped us make our textiles, or the now-extinct turnspit dogs, which once turned food during cooking. But for many Australians cash remains the essential medium of exchange and store of value that gives them freedom, choice and control.

Cash is critical for many households, small businesses and regional communities. A substantial portion of the Australian population would face genuine hardship or major inconvenience if cash were to become harder to access or to use as a payment method. I used to work at the Jannali Woolworths, which, further up Box Road from where it used to be, still serves residents of my electorate.

Every day I'd serve customers who were still reliant on cash for access to basic services—fresh food and groceries to ensure that they lived healthy and comfortable lives. That was a decade ago, but that reliance still exists. Any challenges to the viability of cash in Australia would not only risk locking many Australians out of obtaining the basic goods needed for life but also threaten the 15 per cent of our economy that is facilitated by cash transactions.

That's why our government took the forward-looking step of mandating cash acceptance for essential goods and services. From the start of this year, supermarkets and fuel retailers that meet certain criteria have an obligation to accept cash between 7 am and 9 pm for transactions of $500 or less. The importance of cash to many Australians and to the broader economy is abundantly clear.

But what often goes unnoticed is the hidden architecture underpinning our transactions: the cash distribution system that facilitates the movement and processing of enormous volumes of cash right across our country. Cash doesn't just magically float from the printers at Note Printing Australia's Craigieburn location to your local bank branch or ATM. Coins do not roll from the mint straight into supermarket tills.

The journey from production to point of sale involves a vast distribution network incorporating transport and logistics, collection and supply services, security, and ATM servicing. It includes administration, quality control and counterfeit detection. And cash must be stored, processed and packaged before it is used.

As customers and businesses transition to using EFTPOS and digital payments more frequently, the economics of the cash distribution system are becoming harder to sustain. With demand for cash declining while downstream costs for those operating in the network remain the same, retailers often face higher costs in obtaining cash. This is especially true in regional and remote areas, where Australia's natural geography can heighten the challenges of ensuring that cash distribution services are provided at reasonable prices.

A related anxiety for many has been the closure of some regional bank branches. The viability of branch networks in regional and remote Australia is a critical part of making sure that those in the bush and smaller towns right across the country have access to the cash they need on the same terms as those in the major cities. Last year our government announced new commitments by Australia's major banks to not have any further branch closures in regional areas before 31 July 2027.

Westpac has subsequently announced that it has extended its moratorium until 2030. When cash becomes expensive for businesses to access, the ability to offer cash as a payment method to customers becomes harder to sustain. Any risk to businesses being able to access cash at a reasonable cost is a risk to the viability of cash transactions.

If retailers find it too expensive to keep their tills stocked, they will find it more and more difficult to keep the requisite cash on hand to offer change as well as continue to perform complementary tasks like closing tills at the end of shifts and purchasing insurance. Unlike other sectors that deliver essential services in the financial system, there are currently few regulatory guidelines to manage the systemic risks and sustain an efficient, resilient cash distribution.

Amidst heady new developments in fintech, digital assets and agentic commerce, it is important that our authorities and regulators don't lose sight of the technology that remains essential for so many Australians: the polymer notes we carry in our wallets—that unique Australian invention that powers hundreds of billions in economic activity every single year.

Let's be clear: the viability of cash distribution services is a serious risk to the sustainability of cash in our economy, and it is absolutely an issue meriting the focus of this parliament. In light of these challenges, the government's aim is resolute: maintain cash for as long as Australians want to use it. It's a key priority in the government's strategic plan for Australia's payments system, and it is what this bill intends to address.

The regulatory framework contained in the bill is a practical and measured response to the challenges in cash distribution services. It will be administered by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the RBA. It will apply to critical cash distribution service providers that have been designated by the RBA.

This bill gives the RBA powers to designate entities that have a significant role in the cash distribution system. It promotes the efficient operation of and investment in a cash distribution system, such as the upstream and downstream markets for cash transport, collection and supply services and the stocking and servicing of ATMs. These powers allow the RBA to designate entities as significant to the cash distribution system based on whether these actors can substantially influence the market, whether the actors are of national or regional importance to the market and whether they provide services that are critical to the efficient functioning of the cash distribution system and other factors that the RBA may consider relevant.

The bill establishes an oversight framework to be administered by the ACCC. It incorporates definitions relating to service and access agreements, reporting and record-keeping requirements, obligations when entering into service and access agreements, a process for approving standard terms and a process for the ACCC in certain circumstances to determine standard terms that cover a designated entity's provision of cash distribution services and facilities access.

It also introduces a crisis management and resolution regime for cash distribution services that are critical to the availability of cash in Australia. This includes price and service oversight of critical cash and distribution entities. The amendments to this bill address concerns around potential regulatory ambiguity on the interaction of the cash distribution framework and road transport contractual chain orders made by the Fair Work Commission.

We have engaged in a wide-ranging consultation with relevant stakeholders to introduce a framework that is rational, coherent and timely to the transitions under way in Australia's payments system. In the absence of such a regulatory framework, the clear trends in Australia's payment system paint a worrying picture for the future of cash distribution services in this country.

It is a trend that our government is not prepared to settle for. That's why we are taking action with a package that supports the continued long-term availability of cash as a means of payment in Australia; a package that gives our regulators the power to effectively manage and resolve threats to the distribution services that are critical to the availability of cash; a package that promotes the provision of cash distribution services and facilities access on terms and conditions, including pricing levels that are fair, reasonable and transparent; and a package that promotes effective competition at both ends of the market for cash, transport, collection and supply.

It forms part of our broader agenda to safeguard the use of cash well into the future along with reforms to Australia's payments system, the cash mandate introduced earlier this year and ongoing work to ensure sustainable access to regional bank branches. It's a bill in the best Labor traditions of inclusion, choice and fairness. I commend this bill to the House.