Dear Department of the Treasury,

Earlier this year, proposed legislation was tabled with the express purpose to severely curtail the freedom of Australian citizens to undertake financial transactions using physical legal tender.

The proposed legislation, the Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill 2019, has the effect of criminalising the act of making a transaction in cash over the threshold value of $10,000.

This Bill would severely curtail a freedom currently enjoyed by Australian citizens, and instead convert the act into a criminal offence, namely the ability to pay for goods and services in cash.

This current freedom to use cash has strong advantages in terms of personal privacy, which is particularly beneficial as we consider the mounting number of cases of breaches of security of electronic databases and transaction records, intentional or otherwise, which have resulted in private and very personal details of citizens being compromised.

A reduction in freedoms enjoyed by Australian citizens by the Government should be a matter of the most serious consideration, where the benefits of such a reduction in freedoms should vastly outweigh the grave cost, i.e. a permanent reduction in freedoms and increased use of alternative methods of payment leading to higher vulnerability of personal data.

Accordingly, I hereby request the following Government Information documents which I consider to be of great public importance:

a) Documents provided to the Treasury detailing the analysis of the costs and benefits to the Australian economy of banning Australians using physical currency to conduct economic transactions over $10,000;

b) Documents produced by or commissioned on behalf of the Treasury detailing the analysis of the costs and benefits to the Australian economy of banning Australians using physical currency to conduct economic transactions over $10,000; and

c) Documents produced by or commissioned on behalf of the Treasury providing advice to any Government Minister or Minister's staff detailing the analysis of the costs and benefits to the Australian economy of banning Australians using physical currency to conduct economic transactions over $10,000.

Scope of request is on impact to Economy, not Commonwealth Taxation revenue

For clarity, any document which contains any discussion or forecast regarding solely increased government taxation revenue does not fall within the scope of my request.

I am not seeking documents or information in regards to the "Black Economy" taskforce regarding taxation revenue.

I am seeking documents describing information regarding analysis of economic impacts to the entire economy.

If this can be answered as informal request, please do so.

Otherwise, please proceed with this as a formal request under the Freedom of Information principles & framework, i.e. the Freedom of Information Act 1982 & other associated guidelines and regulations.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Smith

Dear FOI Officer,

Thank you for your reply of 18 October.

Regarding the Treasury's usual policy of excluding personal contact details of "government employees", which I assume to mean public service staff, while I recognise that this is a restriction to release of FOI documents over and above the requirements set out in the Act, on consideration of the Government Information subject to this request, I do not object to the Treasury's adherence to its internal policy.

I will however raise an objection, if the reason for not releasing any documents identified to be in the scope of my request for Government Information solely rests on the fact that they contain names and contact details of public service staff.

I also have no objection to the other two points, namely avoiding the release of duplicate documents and also of draft versions of documents for which there exists a final version.

I look forward to receiving your response.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Smith