Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For too long, banks and international card providers have benefited from a system that penalises consumers and small businesses. It's a system that has siphoned off billions of dollars from our economy through merchant fees, acquirer fees and card surcharges. According to Canstar, these fees cost us $4 billion annually—money that belongs in the pockets of hardworking Australians, not in the hands of banks and international card providers.

Small businesses in particular have been drowning under these surcharges. I used to run a small business, and my business used to pay $1,000 a month in these fees to the banks. Merchant fees cost the local kebab shop down the road from my office $2,000 a month. For everyday Australians, when these surcharges have to be passed on, it means less money in their bank account.

I've spent hours in the past month questioning the RBA and the big banks about this. I've heard countless experts talk about these fees on radio and TV, and no-one has been able to answer this simple question adequately: why are the costs of cash embedded when the costs of digital payments are not? No-one can tell me cash is fee-free and that digital isn't. It's upside down, and it doesn't make any sense.

Well, I think this rort's time is up. There simply must be change. Four billion dollars per year is being ripped out of our economy, away from the pockets of Australians who work day in, day out. Right now, the banks own digital payment systems here in Australia, and they're being bypassed at the checkout. Instead of businesses being charged the lowest fee available, they're being slugged higher fees off international card providers, which are being increasingly passed on to customers.

I know I'm not the only Australian that recognises this. Since I first raised this issue with the RBA a month or so ago, I've been inundated with support from businesses and consumers across the country who have been frustrated for years, as I have, because these fees just don't make sense. But, of course, there is resistance. Banks and card providers are not willing to let go of these fees that easily.

During the public hearings of the House Economics Committee last week, I questioned the CEOs of Australia's big banks, and they were quick to justify these fees. Their response was predictable—claims about maintaining infrastructure and covering costs. But we need to be clear here. The infrastructure for fee-free payments exists now here in Australia, and the banks' reluctance to move forward isn't about costs; it's about a reluctance to give up what I believe to be unjustified fees. These fees are unjustified because the banks carry the costs of cash but not the costs of digital payments. CBA revealed that distributing cash costs them $350 million a year, and they do so without batting an eyelid. Their own evidence said that cash costs twice as much to transact in than digital, and yet, despite these costs, the banks absorb the costs of cash.

Banks own Australia's digital domestic payments platform. They all collectively own EFTPOS, BPAY, Osko, and the new national payments platform. They own all of them, and they have told us that they're cheaper than cash—but they charge us to use the digital platforms. That's got to stop, and that's the crux of my campaign. Digital payments have transformed the way we transact. They are quick, they are safe, and we know that they are cheaper to process than the alternative. For that reason alone, they should be fee-free.

At its heart, this campaign is about supporting everyday Australians—families, workers, and small-business owners—who are feeling the pinch from rising costs of living. This campaign is about ensuring small businesses are not penalised for offering digital payments, which 75 per cent of us use. For a small retailer, the costs of accepting digital payments are significant. For a $100 purchase at Woolies or Coles, the cost for them will be as low as 20c, maybe even less. For that same purchase at a small business, it could cost them $2. Big retailers can absorb these costs; small businesses cannot. The inequality is absurd, it's anticompetitive, and it has to stop.

By the end of the year, the Reserve Bank will start to review payment surcharges. This review is the nation's opportunity to end this digital payments rort. I'd encourage all to sign my petition at feefreedigital.com. The time for change is now. Australia deserves a fee-free digital payment.

House adjourned at 17:00

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Payne ) took the chair at 09:33, a division having been called in the House of Representatives.