Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I will deal firstly with Senator Joyce’s comments. It is not external. If you are charged a fee for paying cash, my clear understanding is that it has to be part of your contract term with the phone company, or whatever, to entitle that to occur. I would have thought that, because it is not external, the fee charged would be between the post office and the company, for instance. So it is not external.

I would like to take the issue to Senator Evans, to clarify the government’s position. I think the government’s position is that there has not been a robust regulatory impact assessment in relation to this. We are talking about being charged a fee for paying in cash. I do not want to misrepresent the government’s position, but, as I understand it, there is a concern about the blanket nature of this amendment. Does this mean that the government will be looking at the reasonableness or otherwise of charging a fee for cash in relation to the next round of amendments to consumer legislation? Will there be a robust regulatory impact assessment and also a general principle as to the circumstances in which it is reasonable to charge an additional amount for paying cash? I cannot think of any. That is my view, but will the government be looking at both the circumstances in which a fee is charged and the extent of that fee? They are two distinct issues, but they are tied into the same principle.