The Australian Taxpayers' Alliance has come out strongly against a new law that bans the use of cash for payments of more than A$10,000 - on pain of two years' jail.
Scott Morrison's government has framed the legislation - currently making its way through the Australian Parliament -as means to clamp down on tax evasion, drug dealers and gangs.
The legislation has been softened by a number of exemptions. For example, Australians will still be able to use more than A$10,000 in cash to pay for a car.
Policy director Emilie Dye said, "A $10,000 restriction on the use of cash would harm small businesses, give more power to corporate banks, and would fail to restrict any criminal activities."
Banks and electronic payment methods are not always reliable, Dye said.
"Look at the bush fire crisis and the thousands of Australians forced to use cash during a natural disaster."
She added, "Let us not forget the Royal Commission into the banking sector. Without healthy competition and restriction banks, particularly corporate banks will abuse their powers. Lower interest rates and higher bank fees hurt hard-working Australians."
Australian Taxpayers' Alliance policy director Emilie Dye: "Look at the bushfire crisis and the thousands of Australians forced to use cash during a natural disaster." Photo / File
Similarly, the Spectator said in an editorial, "Sure, most of us can't imagine undertaking a transaction worth that much in dollar bills, so we don't necessarily see how that would affect us. But once it takes effect, there will be little to stop the threshold from slipping down drastically to $5000 or $3000, with lower thresholds already in effect elsewhere in the world."
The conservative publication cited Portugal, where an initial ban on cash payments of more than €10,000 was ratcheted down to €3000.
Beyond its thin-end-of-the-wedge argument, the Spectator also sees the cash ban as Orwellian.
And on a more meat-and-potatoes level, it says it could disadvantage cash-under-the-bed savers at time when interest rates threaten to go negative.
The Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill is going through Australia's Parliament at the same time the Reserve Bank is reviewing the use of cash here.
But the ATA's opposite number in NZ, the Taxpayers' Union doesn't have any plans to stick its oar in.
"It's not in our wheelhouse," TU executive director Jordan Williams said.
