Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The government does not support the Digital Assets (Market Regulation) Bill 2023. The Albanese government is working to regulate digital and crypto asset platforms in Australia. These platforms hold billions of dollars of assets for Australians while providing services such as trading and staking. While innovation in this sector is critical to enabling growth and competition in Australia's financial sector, failures and vulnerabilities of these platforms have increased the need to regulate to protect consumers. The coalition failed to regulate crypto comprehensively while they were in government. The private member's bill put forward by Senator Bragg is not up to scratch, according to industry feedback to the Senate inquiry. There is undoubtedly, though, a need for change.

Interest in digital and crypto assets has grown rapidly. Around one to four per cent of Australians own some form of crypto. I might point out I'm not one of them. I've never engaged in that practice in any way whatsoever, but many do.