Cash is no longer King. Long before the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decided to remove the monarch from our five-dollar note, a campaign had already begun to make Australia cashless. Not a grassroots campaign led by the community, but rather one led by the ‘big three’.

Big banks, big government, and big business.

What’s in it for them, you might ask?

For the banks, it’s obvious. Branches cost money and ATMs cost money. Keep in mind, every time you use anything other than cash to pay for an item, the bank takes a cut. With merchants almost always passing the interchange fees directly on to the consumer, it’s hardly a good deal for us.

Big business, on the other end, tracks what you spend and then sends targeted advertising in the hope you spend more.

And the government? Well, big bureaucracy loves big data, and there’s no greater control than knowing how every dollar is spent.

All this begs the question: Whatever happened to having a choice? How have we allowed ourselves to become so dependent as a society on the big three that many places refuse to accept cash?

Gone are the days of searching your pockets for loose change or including cash in a birthday card. Everything has to be trackable, traceable, and benefiting a select few.

What’s worse, the banks can’t be trusted with our money. With foreign interference at its highest levels, what’s to stop the banks from being compromised? We’ve already seen telecommunication companies like Optus hacked, what guarantees the banks will be different?

Nor is this the only danger. Natural disasters can disrupt the energy and communication networks required by digital transactions, and without cash as a backup, where would we be?

Who’s to say that one morning you won’t find yourself locked out of your accounts because of the actions of a foreign hacker, a power outage, a mobile blackout, or a plain old-fashioned IT screw-up? How will you be able to pay your weekly expenses without the safety net of cash?

Cash is a fundamental part of life. It is no exaggeration to say it’s been the building block of our economic civilisation. Its tangible representation of value enables the specialisation of the economy which defines modern society, and its universal acceptance as a medium of exchange has allowed us to fairly trade our time, skills, and goods. Abolishing cash should be unthinkable without a national debate or democratic mandate, even if that abolition comes through a gradual erosion, encouraged by the self-interested cartel that holds the levers of our financial system.

Now, of course, I don’t condone money laundering, tax evasion, or indeed other illegal activities, but if you believe those only happen in the cash-based economy, I’ve got news for you. Corporate fraud and tax evasion continue on an epic scale. Some would argue our digital economy makes both easier.

So, for the many Victorians, and indeed Australians, who value privacy, value their independence, and don’t want to have their life printed out on a spreadsheet, I stand with you.

For those who want a choice in the way you spend your money, I stand with you.

And for those of you who think it’s wrong that a company can refuse legal tender, I stand with you.

It’s time for the government to step in and secure the future of cash. The RBA might issue it, but the trust and confidence a fiat currency requires comes from a nation’s government. It’s time for our government to act so cash can once again be free, fair, and accessible to all.

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