If you ever needed an example of government overreach, today is it.
After two days of hearings in Sydney and Canberra…
Some 40 hours of expert testimony…
…not just the kind from cranks that the mainstream likes to dismiss…
…and after 2,659 submissions, it appears Australians are about to have some hideous legalisation forced upon them.
After businesses like Flight Centre said it would hurt their business model.
Even though many political members of the Liberal party have said they don’t support it.
And even after our own anti-money laundering regulator couldn’t justify the need for such legalisation…
It looks as if the Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill 2019 will pass.1
It doesn’t matter that Aussies don’t want it.
It doesn’t matter that businesses have said it will hurt them.
The government acts on its own invested interests…
And you don’t get a say…
Ignoring those against the ban on cash
The movement against the bill has come from all corners of Australian politics.
The Greens, who people are quick to dismiss as leftist hippies that want to crash their economy with their policies, have been highly critical of the ban. The Age stated they have seen an email from The Greens to their supporters saying:
‘The bill is a case of the cure being worse than the disease…
‘The bill would criminalise the use of legal tender. In doing so, the bill challenges the freedoms that hard currency provides and lays a path towards further restrictions on the use of cash and even negative interest rates.’2
Legitimate businesses have pushed back against this cash ban, including the Housing Industry Association, NSW Farmers, and the Australian Dental Association.
Even Flight Centre weighed in, and were offered the opportunity to push back against it, with Brett Anderson (risk manager for the company) saying during the testimony:
‘Our ability to track [transactions] to meet the requirements of this regulation is a concern for us.’3
Members from the Coalition, including Russell Broadbent, Barnaby Joyce, George Christensen, and Patrick Conaghan have expressed concern about the bill.
To boot, the bill is divisive within the Liberal party itself, with Victorian Liberal member Steve Holland saying:
‘In my view, there is a sense among party members and I think Liberal voters, that on this bill the party is not staying true to its Liberal values.
‘I’d like to see the legislation withdrawn because in my view it is antithetical to our Liberal principles.’4
Friend and first interviewee of Rock Stock Insider John Adams pointed out that this type of policy is ‘at odds’ with the government’s own agenda, saying during the hearing:
‘This policy is completely inconsistent with the thinking about how to deregulate an economy and promote not only economic freedom but robust economic outcomes.’
Furthermore, if you do some digging around on YouTube, there’s a video testimony from AUSTRAC that show they couldn’t demonstrate that the cash ban was necessary.5
That’s right.
Our very own regulator with their own set of special rules to tracking and identifying money laundering couldn’t prove that an additional law that gives them more power was needed.
These aren’t tin-pot armchair experts from the bowels of the internet.
The majority of the people pushing back against the ban are Australian businesses and our own politicians.
Yet a very select group, our current political leaders, look to be surging ahead to act only on vested interests and what benefits them. Not you.
They came for your cash…
A cash ban on various amounts, dependant on the country, has been in place in the EU for some time.
In the pages of a now defunct newsletter, I provided a photo of a restaurant in Berlin that refused to accept the €500 note back in 2015.
Yet since the cash ban came into places in the EU, it has failed to have any material impact on money laundering, tax evasion, and terrorism.
The very things the cash ban claims to fix.6
Not only that, today it’s $10,000. But as I wrote here, that won’t last.
That’s not me starting rumours either.
The government task force set up to ‘investigate’ this cash ban admitted that the $10,000 won’t be effective and that it will need to be lower.
Once we’re lumped with the legalisation, the only question is how long politicians will humour us by keeping it at a five-figure level.
To justify this insidious piece of legalisation, it’s the same old tripe.
To stop criminals. Because we as people are being robbed of people who don’t pay taxes.
With the implied message from politicians being ‘we’re really trying to save you…’
I have more faith in criminals continuing to operate than I do in the government.
Crooks and thugs will simply find other means of conducting their illegal business. A cash ban won’t stop them.
What this does though, is stop you, the person on the right side of the law.
The person who wants to go about their business freely.
The person who would like to choose how to pay for goods.
The choice to transact away from the bank.
But more than anything, you should be alarmed.
The political tone has been set.
Our government completely ignored the business case against this Currency Bill.
And no doubt they are acting on the advice of their in-house task force.
I have no doubt that this is nothing more than suggesting rules that suit an agenda that rakes more people into a banking system. A banking system I might add, that has continued to fail people since the creation of central banks.
I couldn’t think of a better reason to buy gold.
| Until next time, |
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| Shae Russell, PS: Learn why a recession in Australia is coming and three steps to ‘recession-proof’ your wealth. Click here to download your free report |
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