The proposed bill to ban the use of cash for transactions over $10,000 voted out by Australian Senate.

The controversial bill to ban the use of cash for transactions over $10,000 has been voted out by the Australian Senate. One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts brought the motion to remove the bill today after more than a year of trenchant opposition to it from a cross-section of the community, including cryptocurrency proponents. Many saw it as infringing on Australians’ rights and freedom to use cash and protect their transactions’ privacy.

The Australian Senate votes out the proposed bill.

Early drafts of the bill included digital currencies as subject to the proposed limits. Introduced to Federal Parliament in September 2019, the proposed bill would have introduced fines of up to $25,000 or jail terms for people or entities that made or accepted payments worth more than five-figures. Senator Roberts said the bill would have criminalized the use of legal tender for everyday Australians and claimed that “the proposed bill was never about tackling crime or money laundering.” He stated, “Even the Government’s own Committee Inquiry said that the bill was out of step with Australian values and was impractical.”

The central bank of Australia continues to research CBDC.

As reported earlier, Australia’s central bank was highly skeptical and did not believe there was a strong policy case for issuing a CBDC at the time. The public policy case for issuing a general-purpose or retail CBDC in Australia is still to be made. The Head of Payments Policy said that while Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are based on public blockchains, this would not necessarily be the case for a CBDC, which may be developed using a permissioned and centralized digital ledger. However, the Reserve Bank of Australia has revealed that it is continuing to research a central bank digital currency (CBDC).