3 May 2023 - Citizens Party Media ReleaseMore than 110,000 Australians have signed a Change.org petition for an “Australian cash and banking guarantee”.
The petition was launched by Jason Bryce, who leads the “Cash Welcome” campaign which encourages all businesses to allow the option of payment in cash.
The public support for this petition runs counter to the banks’ claims that Australians want a cashless society.
It’s the banks who want Australians to go cashless, as the Big Four banks made clear in the 28 April 2023 Australian Financial Review article “Banks cull branches in shift to a cashless society”.
They claim they are “lagging” customers in the supposed rush to cashless banking and transacting, but going cashless benefits the banks—by enabling them to take a cut of all transactions, and collect and monetise data on all transactions.
It does not benefit consumers, who lose all privacy, can’t escape bank fees, and are left at the mercy of both natural disasters cutting off power and communications, and sophisticated online scammers.
It is the banks who are pushing the cashless agenda by making it harder for people to source and use cash by mass-closing bank branches and ripping out ATMs.
Westpac told AFR it is actively pushing “cashless towns”, supposedly to reduce the security risks of handling large amounts of cash; in fact, Westpac is simply trying to justify closing the last banks in towns like Coober Pedy in SA and Carnamah in WA, not caring that internet technology is not reliable enough to go completely cashless anyway.
Do Westpac and the other big banks intend to pay for the rollout of the coverage of mobile phone towers and fibre optic cable that would be required for 100 per cent reliable internet coverage in regional Australia that would make cashless towns even plausible?
