David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move amendments (1) and (2) as circulated in my name together:

(1) Schedule 1, item 15, page 6 (line 24), omit "currency;", substitute "currency.".

(2) Schedule 1, item 15, page 6 (lines 25 and 26), omit paragraph 15C(4A)(d).

Earlier this week, in the House, I flagged that the coalition in general supports this bill, which largely acts on recommendations of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services inquiry into the regulation and the use of financial services such as credit cards and digital wallets for online gambling in Australia, chaired by the member for Fisher and the report of which was published in November 2021. We support this bill and the measures it takes in relation to credit cards, digital wallets and digital currency, but we do have a particular concern relating to the power that the bill gives to the minister to ban methods of payment that are not specified in the legislation. I've moved amendments to remove this power from the minister.

Specifically, clause 15 states in proposed paragraph 15C(4A)(d):

a method of a kind determined by the Minister by legislative instrument for the purposes of this paragraph

Basically, that says a minister could, in the future, effectively ban any method of payment that they chose. We don't think that's appropriate because it gives a very wide latitude to the minister. Given that the method of payment would be a legal form of currency, it's a substantial thing to stop Australians from having the right to use that currency, and it's something that should properly come before the parliament rather than being via the minister. The bill doesn't simply says it bans any form of currency determined by the minister; the bill sets out a number of specific methods of payment—appropriately—but then has this catch-all at the end that basically says 'and anything else the minister determines'. We don't think that's appropriate. We think it's overreach and we think it should be deleted.

We'd have that concern with any minister, to be frank, but particularly with the minister that we have. It is ultimately a question of judgement of the minister, and this is a minister who has demonstrated a lack of judgement on numerous occasions, whether they be the issues relating to the politicisation of the Mobile Black Spot Program, the appalling misinformation bill which, in the judgement of this minister, was appropriate to put forward to the Australian people, or, indeed, the judgement of the minister to reject the recommendation of the eSafety Commissioner to conduct a trial into online age-verification technology in order to protect children from dangerous material. For those reasons, we do not think this is appropriate power to be given, and that is why I move those amendments.

Debate adjourned.