Tag Archives: Australia

International

Australia Bans Cash Payments over $10,000 AUD

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(DFN) The government of Australia plans to make cash payments over $10,000 AUD ($7,500 USD) illegal starting on July 1 2019. Afterwards, all payments over that amount will have to be made via check or debit/credit card.

The Aussie government cites criminal activity, tax evasion, and “encouraging the transition to a digital society” as reasons for its ban. Treasurer Scott Morrison, said “[t]his will be bad news for criminal gangs, terrorists and those who are just trying to cheat on their tax” and that “[i]t’s a crime.” To enforce the ban, the government approved the creation of a $300 million Black Economy Standing Taskforce who is tasked with generating $3 billion of new tax revenue over the course of four years.

Interestingly, Australia is a one of the most cash-loving countries. Around 37% of Australians use cash, which is 5% more than citizens in the United States and 22% more than citizens in Sweden. In addition, Aussies have already backlashed against proposals to phase out their $100 note even though it is already notoriously rare in common circulation. The cash ban plan seems to ignore the fact that India tried a similar measure for similar reasons a few years ago, since which the policy has largely been considered a failure that has done little to prevent criminal activity and only hurt the most poor citizens.

Obtuse Government Protection

Dash Force News talked about Australia’s cash ban plan with Naomi Brockwell, the famous cryptocurrency commentator who happens to hail from Australia. When she first heard of the ban, she was initially taken aback, but not completely surprised.

“The cash ban seems shockingly Orwellian, but not entirely unexpected. The government purports to be protecting us from malicious actors, but the result will be just more government overreach where our actions are further tracked and controlled. The government is forcing us to use the existing financial system whether we want to or not: a system that has failed over and over to protect our privacy.”

The failure of the banking system can be partially attributed to the undesirable services and products that banks offer. In addition, she mentioned how the ban is going to have unintended consequences the government did not and cannot foresee.

“Banks are often notorious for high account and credit card fees, hidden charges, bad protection of personal information. Forcing these things on businesses with already small profit margins will undoubtably hurt many.”

The data showed that Australians are very fond of cash and Naomi had a hypothesis as to why that is the case.

“Australians like their freedom, and like controlling their own money, and perhaps this stems from an instinctual rejection of authority. There is a distrust for banks throughout the country, and for the government to force citizens to use something they don’t like or agree with is a slap in the face for ordinary Australians who would otherwise choose not to.”

Many economists have studied cashless proposals and countries around the world are trying to implement those policies. Even though they have not had much success thus far, it does not appear as though governments will stop trying to eliminate cash. Naomi sees cryptocurrencies playing a role in the future to combat bad government policies.

“We have seen cryptocurrency become a lifeline for those in places like China and Venezuela where people are being hurt by government actions. As governments gets more controlling and curtail the individual’s choices, people will naturally try to find ways to protect themselves. Cryptocurrency seems to be a natural next step.”

Dash is contributing to that next step

People around the world are looking for solutions to their problems that stem from government and the current monetary and fiscal system. Dash is qualified to provide those solutions with its fast confirmation times, low fees, and security. There are many individuals trying to escape their government’s rapid inflation of the money supply and constant devaluation of their wealth. There are numerous more unbanked individuals around the world that need a secure and inexpensive way to store their wealth, but still have easy access to their liquidity. Some simply want to offer consumers more choices and flexibility or provide new and innovative ways to benefits individuals.

Dash is able to leverage its unique governance and treasury system along with its incentivestructure and community to provide those solutions effectively in a cooperative and decentralized way. Dash has around 100 Dash-accepting merchants on DiscoverDash.com, signaling that some Aussies already have a preference for Dash over their traditional system. Dash provides an effective substitute for consumers that are dissatisfied with their government’s policies, monopoly on money, and the poor services of banks.

 

Written by Justin Szilard

This article was republished with permission from Dash Force News.

Featured, International, Politics

Obama Signs “Fast Track” Bill, TPP Inches Closer to Completion

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On Monday President Obama signed into law the so-called “fast-track” bill, setting the stage for approval of the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The fast-track bill, officially known as the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), was one of two bills signed by Obama. The president also signed the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) act which is supposed to extend aid to workers who might lose their jobs as a consequence of the TPP or other so-called free trade deals.

Following the signing, Darlene Superville, White House reporter for The Associated Press, tweeted:

@POTUS at trade bill signing: ‘I thought I’d start off the week with something we should do more often, a truly bipartisan bill signing’

Despite the bipartisan nature of the bill, President Obama acknowledged the hurdles that remain for the TPP. “We still have some tough negotiations that are going to be taking place. The debate will not end with this bill signing,” Obama said.

CNET reports that an Australian parliamentary committee has released a “Blind Agreement” report warning of an impending “attack [on] internet freedoms,” and criticizing the negotiations as lacking “oversight and scrutiny.”

The joint-Parliamentary report stated that, “Parliament is faced with an all-or-nothing choice” and is being “kept in the dark.”

“Parliament should play a constructive role during negotiations and not merely rubber-stamp agreements that have been negotiated behind closed doors,” the report reads.

With the passing of the TPA and TAA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is possibly only weeks away from approval. The trade agreement has been notoriously secret, with the public only viewing chapters of the text which have been leaked by WikiLeaks.

TruthInMedia previously reported on the growing opposition to the TPP:

As the trade agreement nears completion both the Anglican and Catholic churches of New Zealand are demanding the government be more transparent about the negotiations. Radio NZ reports that bishops from the churches are concerned with the lack of openness and that corporate interests are influencing the agreement while the people are being excluded. The churches also called on the New Zealand government to make the draft text of the agreement public.

In early February,  doctors and health professional representing seven countries released a letter warning that the TPP will lead to higher medical costs for all nations. The letter, published in The Lancet medical journal, states that, “Rising medicine costs would disproportionately affect already vulnerable populations.” The doctors called on the governments involved in the trade deal to publicly release the full text of the agreement. They also demanded an independent analysis of the impacts on health and human rights for each nation involved in the deal.

Also in February, an analysis by The Washington Post revealed the US government’s numbers on expected job increases from TPP are not factually correct. The Fact Checker examined several quotes from government officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. Both Kerry and Vilsack claimed the international trade agreement would create 650,000 new jobs. However, these numbers do not take into account income gains and changing wages. According to the government own sources imports and exports would increase by the same amount resulting in a net number of zero new jobs.

International, Politics, US

Personal Details Of G20 Leaders Accidentally Leaked By Australia’s Immigration Department

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Australia’s immigration department mistakenly disclosed personal information of world leaders who attended last November’s G20 Summit in Brisbane, according to a new report from The Guardian.

The leak forwarded the personal details of 31 attendees, including President Barack Obama, Russian president Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chinese president Xi Jinping, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, Indonesian president Joko Widodo, and British prime minister David Cameron.

In a November 7th, 2014 email from Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection obtained by The Guardian in a freedom of information request, personal details of the attendees, including “the name, date of birth, title, position nationality, passport number, visa grant number and visa subclass held”, were accidentally sent to an organization committee member of the 2015 Asian Cup international soccer tournament.

The leak was caused by an “isolated example of human error,” according to the email. An immigration department employee “failed to check that the autofill function in Microsoft Outlook had entered the correct person’s details into the email ‘To’ field.” The recipient of the information, a member of the Asian Cup local organization committee, quickly notified the immigration department that the email had been sent to the wrong person.

The email reveals that the Asian Cup’s local organization committee deleted the sensitive email and did not “believe the email to be accessible, recoverable or stored anywhere else in their systems.”

The Immigration and Border Protection officer went on to recommended that the G20 summit attendees not be informed of the leak. “Given that the risks of the breach are considered very low and the actions that have been taken to limit the further distribution of the email, I do not consider it necessary to notify the clients of the breach,” the officer wrote.

“As mentioned above, this was an isolated example of human error, but I will nonetheless take the opportunity to remind staff of their obligations in relation to private client data and how to treat this. I will also reinforce the need to double check email recipients before sending emails.”

News of the leak follows last week’s passage of mandatory data retention laws by the Australian Senate, which now requires telecommunications and internet service providers to store their customers’ metadata for a minimum of two years.