“What is clear is that if we embrace these developments, Australia has an enormous opportunity to capitalize on the convergence between finance and technology,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said.
The Australian government is seriously considering the rollout of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) and has backed numerous forward-looking regulatory crypto proposals as part of a new “payments and crypto reform plan.”
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the reforms “will firmly place Australia among a handful of lead countries in the world.”
The reform plan is said to be the biggest shake-up of the Australian payments system since the 1990s, with part of the crypto-related groundwork set by the innovative proposals put forward by an Australian Senate Committee in September.
According to the Australian Financial Review, the government is in favor of six out of nine reforms proposed by the Senate Committee, including a licensing regime for crypto exchanges, laws to govern decentralized autonomous organizations, and a common access regime for new payments platforms.
Two proposals relating to tax and financial compliance have been referred to their respective government bodies for consideration, while the government has knocked back another proposal related to renewable energy Bitcoin (BTC) mining tax discounts.
Frydenberg outlined the government’s plans for crypto regulation, taxation and CBDCs in a speech on Wednesday at the Australia–Israel Chamber of Commerce (AICC).
“What is clear is that if we embrace these developments, Australia has an enormous opportunity to capitalize on the convergence between finance and technology,” he said.
Concerning CBDCs, an unnamed senior government source told The Australian on Tuesday that a retail scale “RBA [Reserve Bank of Australia] backed Bitcoin or cryptocurrency” is currently being considered and will be a key element of the government’s regulatory reform on digital payments.