Cash Distribution Framework (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions)

“The accompanying Cash Distribution Framework (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill ensures that the transition to the new framework is equally well managed. Schedule 2 provides the ACCC with temporary directions powers, should a significant risk to cash access arise during implementation. Those powers are deliberately limited. They expire after 24 months and exist solely to bridge the gap, while longer-term commercial arrangements are established under the new framework. This legislation also complements the government's broader reforms protecting cash access. The cash acceptance mandate, which commenced on 1 January 2026, requires eligible supermarkets and fuel retailers to accept cash for transactions up to $500 during standard trading hours. Protecting the right to pay with cash is only meaningful if businesses themselves can obtain notes and coins. Alongside commitments from the major banks to pause further regional bank closures, together with strengthened investments in Bank@Post, these reforms form part of a broader strategy to ensure Australians retain access to essential banking services regardless of where they live.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 11 Aug 2026

“These bills are about keeping the system available. They recognise the way Australians' pay is changing. They do not try and stop the change, but they also recognise that progress does not require us to abandon people who still rely on cash. They support fair and transparent pricing. They provide minimum service standards. They give businesses a pathway to resolve disputes. They provide the Reserve Bank with tools to respond if a critical provider is in serious trouble. These amendments make an important clarification: the new framework must work alongside Australia's industrial relations system, not cut across it—and the road transport contractual chain orders exist for that reason. I commend the bills to the House.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 11 Aug 2026

“This bill protects choice. It keeps an essential service working in the public interest. From the tooth fairy to marketplace, from small businesses to school fundraisers, cash remains part of the moments that shape families and bring communities together. Behind those moments sit a national system. Labor is making that system fairer. Labor is making it stronger. Labor is making sure progress carries people with it. I commend this bill to the House.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 12 Aug 2026

“That's why the transitional arrangements contained in the Cash Distribution Framework (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2026 are equally important. These provisions will ensure that, during the introduction of the new framework, safeguards remain firmly in place. As I said earlier, it gives the ACCC temporary powers to intervene where there is a significant risk to ongoing cash access, creating an important bridge between the current system and long-term arrangements established by the legislation. At its core, the bill recognises a simple reality, and that reality is that, while Australia's payment system may continue to evolve—and it will evolve—the government has a responsibility to ensure that those who rely on cash are not left behind, whether it's the pensioner paying for their groceries, the small business managing daily transactions or the family living in a regional community where digital alternatives are not always there or not always reliable. Australians deserve confidence that cash will remain available when they need it, and that is exactly what this legislation seeks to secure.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 11 Aug 2026

“The bill itself is intended to support the ongoing sustainability of the cash distribution system, but there are additional amendments because the bill itself is not intended to supersede industrial relations laws, including the road transport contractual chain orders, which set minimum standards for people in road transport contractual chains to ensure operators are safe, sustainable and viable. In most instances, the cash distribution framework contained in the contractual chain orders will not overlap, given these regimes target different policy outcomes. However, in the event that the two regimes do have some overlap or conflict, the proposed amendments provide a pathway for resolving that conflict. These changes ensure that requirements of the Fair Work Commission set out in a road transport contractual chain order are appropriately protected and address concerns about potential regulatory ambiguity. The amendments require the ACCC to consider a relevant contractual chain order when setting, varying or revoking approved standard terms and service-level standards or when exercising interim powers. The amendments will support those outcomes. The amendments also require the ACCC to have various roles in it.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 12 Aug 2026

“The Cash Distribution Framework Bill 2026 and the Cash Distribution Framework (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2026 are designed for this purpose to ensure that Australians have access to cash for as long as they want to use it, because, while we have to embrace new technology with gusto, we cannot leave Australians who still want to use cash behind. The Albanese Labor government is committed to protecting Australians' access to cash and by extension protecting people's rights to choose how they pay for goods and services. While the modernisation of payment systems has been rapid and has certainly aided in productivity and ease of payment for many, it is important to us that no-one is left behind.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 11 Aug 2026

“This is a measured answer to a real problem. It's not a step back from the digital future. It is a way of making sure that the future leaves no-one stranded at the check-out. It sits alongside the cash our shops must now accept, and it backs the supply of cash that Tasmanians and Australians rely on every day. Therefore, I support this bill and the amendments.”

Australian Labor Party • Senator • 17 Aug 2026

“It forms part of our broader agenda to safeguard the use of cash well into the future along with reforms to Australia's payments system, the cash mandate introduced earlier this year and ongoing work to ensure sustainable access to regional bank branches. It's a bill in the best Labor traditions of inclusion, choice and fairness. I commend this bill to the House.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 12 Aug 2026

“As payment methods change and the digital age becomes even more entrenched, the Albanese Labor government is acting to ensure the marketplace is available and accessible to everyone, not just to those who can easily adapt to the digital marketplace. This bill protects not only vulnerable Australians but all Australians and Australian businesses by ensuring the availability of cash and shoring up the cash distribution and payment system so it enjoys long-term resilience and sustainability. I commend the bill to the House.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 11 Aug 2026

“The government is committed to safeguarding Australians by ensuring continued access to cash and recognising its essential role in our society in law. That is why the government introduced the cash acceptance mandate, which came into effect on 1 January this year. It is enforced by the ACCC and requires major grocery and motor fuel retailers to accept cash for everyday transactions of $500 or less during regular business hours. This is a commonsense measure that protects small businesses by exempting those with a turnover of less than $10 million, unless they share a trademark with a larger retailer. While the cash acceptance mandate is working as intended, we need to ensure that no-one is left behind in the payment system. With the introduction of the Cash Distribution Framework (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2026, the government is taking the next step and delivering on its commitment to maintaining cash for as long as Australians want to use it.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 12 Aug 2026

“Access is not something you legislate once and move on from. It is something that you keep on building into every part of government. This includes something as ordinary as how people actually pay for their groceries. Cash is an important part of the Australian economy. We will make sure that all communities continue to have access to this. Because of these amazing changes, I commend the bill to the House.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 11 Aug 2026

“Australians across all demographic groups continue to use cash as a way to make their everyday payments. But now cash distribution is under threat. Declining transactional cash use is placing pressure on the economics of storing, processing and transporting cash around the country. Industry consolidation, as the member for Riverina mentioned, and structural changes mean that it's time that regulations change as well. Our government is committed to giving a fair go to all Australians. Maintaining reasonable access to cash to withdraw and to deposit services for Australians who want or need to use cash is part of keeping that commitment. It's why we're acting to ensure Australians have access to cash. No matter what part of the country you live in, you should be able to go and get your groceries, your meat and veg, and just hand over a couple of pineapples. This is why I'm proud to support these bills.”

Australian Labor Party • MP • 12 Aug 2026

“Importantly, it gives the ACCC an interim transitional power to help ensure continuity of cash distribution services while the broader framework is implemented.”

Australian Labor Party • Senator • 17 Aug 2026

“It is important that this bill puts a regulator in charge of our cash distribution system to protect all Australians and to make sure that cash distribution is working for all Australians. This legislation has taken a while to come. It's legislation that we're supporting, but it would have been nice if it could have been quicker. The ACCC approved a merger between Australia's two largest cash-in-transit companies, Armaguard and Prosegur, in June 2023. The Albanese Labor government have now waited until August 2026 to act. This delay has caused significant challenges. The government should not have waited three years to build a proper, permanent framework.”

Liberal Party • MP • 12 Aug 2026

“While this is a positive step—and a belated step, as I've mentioned—that we're happy to support, I would take this opportunity just to point out that this does not solve all of the issues for the use and distribution of cash in our economy. We've got the trucks; hopefully, we'll continue to have the trucks there, and the armoured guards. But they need a place to deliver it, and too many places in regional Australia are now without banks.”

Liberal National Party • Senator • 17 Aug 2026

“We are not going to oppose this bill, but I do commend the member for Page for the amendment that he has brought to this debate because it is important that that we refine the bill such that it is better than in its current form. In June 2023, going back to that year when we had the Senate inquiry going around the countryside, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission approved the merger of Australia's two largest cash-in-transit companies, Armaguard and Prosegur. That decision handed a single company control of up to 90 per cent of the market—a private monopoly over how cash physically moves around Australia. Now, I know the ACCC would have looked into all the whys and wherefores about that particular merger, but, still and all, we know also how mergers and monopolies, moreover, can cause such disadvantage particularly in regional Australia and especially in those country communities.”

National Party • MP • 12 Aug 2026

“In conclusion, we support the government. I support the minister and the work he's done on this and on passing the bill quickly, because the undertaking runs out in September. But I had hoped the government would have acted quicker. This will guarantee delivery but not necessarily your right to use cash in as many places as I think it should. And we need a plan for regional bank closures after the moratorium.”

National Party • MP • 11 Aug 2026

“I support the objective of this bill. I want it to work, but the government and regulators must be clear about who they are measuring. Cash used in south-west Sydney is not marginal, and we've heard from the previous member how important cash is to society. For many people and businesses in my electorate, it remains part of everyday life. Keep cash available, keep it affordable, and count my community in the data.”

Independent • MP • 11 Aug 2026