Unprecedented blowback against cash ban—Treasury swamped with 4,000+ submissions!

Veteran cop pleads: ‘Minister, don’t do this to our country!’

The backlash against Scott Morrison’s $10,000 cash ban law is fierce.

A Treasury source has revealed that the Black Economy Division received “4,000-plus” submissions against the exposure draft of the Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill 2019. This is massive—on average, a typical Treasury legislation consultation gets 30 submissions. Over 4,000 submissions is not feedback, it’s blowback!

The responsible Minister, Michael Sukkar, was confronted on 2GB radio by a veteran law enforcement official who destroyed Sukkar’s claim the cash ban is to fight organised crime, and appealed: “Minister, don’t do this to our country!”

And politicians have been flooded with protest calls, with feedback confirming that they are getting nervous—now is the time to increase the calls, especially to National Party MPs, who should rebel against their Liberal colleagues on behalf of their farming constituents who rely heavily on cash.

Treasury cover-up

One of the signs of government nervousness at the backlash is that three weeks after submissions closed, Treasury still has not posted any submissions, or officially reported how many they received. When asked why the delay, one official let slip they were inundated with submissions—“4,000-plus”. Another official, from the Black Economy Division, refused to confirm to the CEC how many they received. Amazingly, he also wouldn’t guarantee that Treasury would publish the submissions by the time the bill is introduced—if Treasury does not, this would make a joke of the consultation process.

Sukkar slammed

Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar, the Minister with carriage of the bill, appeared on the Alan Jones breakfast show on 2GB radio on 29 August to defend the cash ban. Sukkar claimed that the ban wasn’t really about tax evasion in the so-called black economy, but was more about “smashing criminal gangs”. Immediately a federal law enforcement veteran with 32 years’ experience, identified as Richard, called in to 2GB and slammed Sukkar’s arguments: “This is the worst policy direction you can take”, Richard stated. He pointed out that the government admits well over 90 per cent of businesses follow the law, so the real problem is organised crime. If the government were really serious about combating organised crime, it would enact a US-style RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations) Act, but the two major parties don’t want to do it because the criminals that would get caught would include some of their own supporters! In other words, the government and opposition are actively protecting organised crime and corruption, while criminalising law-abiding citizens for using cash. Richard pleaded: “Minister, don’t do this to our country!”

Media coverage

CEC Research Director Robert Barwick was able to call in to Alan Jones after Richard, and make the following points:

• It won’t crack down on criminals, because criminals won’t care if cash is restricted—they are already breaking laws!
• It’s not about the black economy, as the vast majority of tax evasion and money laundering is not by individuals but by banks and multinational corporations.
• The person who recommended the cash ban, Black Economy Taskforce chairman Michael Andrew (now deceased), was the global boss of KPMG when two of its biggest clients, giant British banks HSBC and Standard Chartered, were caught in 2012 in massive money laundering operations—KPMG had audited both banks for years, helping to cover up their crimes!
• Banning cash criminalises law abiding citizens who want to use cash for privacy, and not to have to use a bank and pay bank charges.
• The real reason for the ban is to trap Australians in private banks so they can’t escape insane policies intended to prop up the banking system at the public’s expense, including negative interest rates—charging people to have their money at the banks, and “bail-in”—confiscating deposits to rescue failing banks.

Alan Jones agreed that the biggest problem with tax avoidance is multinationals. He told Barwick the points he made had “tremendous merit” and were “more than valid”. That Sunday, Barwick was invited on to 2GB’s George and Paul morning program to elaborate on the cash ban. George and Paul already understood that the ulterior motive for the cash ban was trapping bank customers in negative interest rates and bail-in. “Thank you very much for the work you’ve done with the Citizens Electoral Council”, George said. “Thank you for waving the flag and ringing the bell very loudly.”

The libertarian-leaning Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) also spoke up more forcefully against the ban. Kurt Wallace’s article, “Ban On Cash Is An Attack On Our Freedoms”, was posted on both the IPA website and SkyNews Australia. “As with all intrusions on privacy, it is argued that if you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ve got nothing to hide”, Wallace wrote. “But this implies the government must be privy to every private transaction, regardless of wrong-doing or even suspected illegal behaviour. This line of argument doesn’t stop at banning $10,000 cash transactions, but to a full blown surveillance state the likes of which you might read about in a dystopian novel.”

The 31 August Australian attacked the cash ban in “Draconian cash bill treats us all as tax-dodging criminals” (paywall), by Katrina Grace Kelly. “You may think that people who have nothing to hide have nothing to worry about with this bill, but that is not the point”, Kelly wrote. “Once it is passed, it is all over for the people of this country in terms of freedom and liberty. We are on the cusp of an unprecedented move into a situation where the state has an unreasonable amount of control over the citizen. Just imagine, too, how other governments will tighten this noose in the future. A $10,000 limit today means a smaller limit tomorrow. The boffins who created the bill wanted a limit of $2,000, so the writing is on the wall.”

What you can do: call, call, and call again!

The best thing people can do is call their MP and Senators in their states, and Scott Morrison, Anthony Albanese and Josh Frydenberg. Especially call National Party MPs, to demand they revolt against this law. For ideas of what to say, use the points that Robert Barwick made to Alan Jones, above.

Click here for the contact details for Anthony Albanese, the Labor Party MPs and Senators, and cross-benchers.

Click here for the contact details of Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg, and Liberal and National and LNP MPs and Senators.

Sign and share as widely as possible the Change.org petition: Stop Scott Morrison from banning cash to trap Australians in banks!