Rowan Holzberger (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm sorry—the honourable member for Goldstein. I appreciate that there was a bit of a lesson there. That's what happens when you run out of something to say in a 15-minute speech. I thought, 'Well, this is good; he's clearly run out of things to say, so we're going to get an insight into how you handle a speech when you don't have anything more to say.' But, unfortunately, we went on a bit of a kaleidoscopic journey into the honourable member's mind. Looking at the point in his speech at which I'd refer people to in the future, if they ever wanted to get a bit of an insight into what happens when somebody panics, go to the 10-minute mark and you'll be completely entertained.

I'm not sure there's anything of substance to respond to in his contribution as part of this debate, but I would very much like to support the Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025. At first glance, it may not stir immediate passion. It is an uncontroversial bill. It enjoys broad support across the parliament, including from the opposition parties—all of them—and other members in the parliament. I think this bill is a reflection of the calm and methodical approach to economic and financial reform that this government undertakes. Just as this government has approached superannuation reform through the changes to the payday super, and just as we're addressing failures like First Guardian and Shield, this bill approaches digital assets with the same careful consideration and pragmatism that shows that this government is about governing responsibly and ensuring that Australians are protected while the Australian financial system can innovate and grow.

The name Sam Bankman-Fried will bring to the minds of tens of thousands of Australians the idea of pain and loss. When the platform FTX collapsed in 2022, many ordinary Australians—not sophisticated investors—lost life savings. In fact, the collapse of a financial product or something financial that someone believed in has a devastating impact on someone's life.

I received a letter from a constituent about the collapse of First Guardian. It illustrates why we need to undertake this sort of essential reform. It will take a bit of time, but I'd appreciate it if the chamber would bear with me. It read: 'I'm writing to you as an ordinary Australian, a low-income earner, a layperson. I'm not writing with fancy words or legal knowledge. That's not who I am. Please don't just read my letter and then move on. Please use your position to speak up for the people who are in these situations through no fault of their own.

Below are two superannuation scenarios I have personally experienced. My son worked for a company for about five years. That company chose not to contribute to his superannuation account. So, when my son resigned and moved on to another position, he realised that his guaranteed superannuation contributions from his employer had not been paid. He then had to put the hard work in to try to recover what is rightfully his for his future. To date, none of those contributions have reached my son's superannuation account.

Scenario 2: my partner and I have lost a portion of our superannuation due to the First Guardian Master Fund collapse. We now have to do the hard work to try and get it back. In 2022 we paid an adviser to look after our superannuation accounts. That appears to have been a very costly exercise—fees, a big mistake and loss. We are the ones now paying for the actions and inactions of others. We have lost years of savings and security, and we continue to lose. We are being punished for trusting the system that's supposed to protect us. We are not wealthy people. We don't pretend to be. We live by our means, and every dollar in our superannuation accounts means a lot to our future. As small as it may seem to others, it is all we have for our future.

I'm tired, angry, frustrated, sad, broken, and genuinely don't understand how these scenarios can take place. I live with ongoing mental health struggles and have done for years. I've had two hospital admissions this year and, yes, our superannuation losses have certainly added to my struggles. My partner worked for Woolworths for 25 years in warehousing, and he has to face every day knowing that a portion of his superannuation is gone. This is also unfair and genuinely cruel. The innocent parties need to be compensated and the governing body needs to go after those responsible to recover what's owed. Instead, it looks like we are heading into the festive season with a big, dark cloud hanging over our heads. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter.'

Her words tell us better than anybody else's in this chamber why consumer protection and trust is central to this bill. This is not abstract policy. It affects real people's livelihoods and retirement savings, and it affects confidence in the financial system. Collapses of digital asset platforms such as FTX and of superannuation funds like First Guardian and Shield demonstrate that we are now operating in a new and evolving financial world where technology changes faster than the law. Innovative financial products carry risks that ordinary Australians may not fully understand, and this bill is designed to respond to that reality. It provides the minister with powers to adapt quickly to technological change, ensuring that rules remain fit for purpose.

Reflecting on my own journey in entrepreneurialism gives me some insight into what is happening here. My first business was as a contract musterer. 'Business' is a very fancy way of describing it, because, really, it was a ute and a bike and a couple of dogs and the will to win. But it taught me something essential about entrepreneurialism. I say sometimes that it's about creating something out of nothing. But it's not nothing; it's many things—many disparate things—which are put together so that the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts. It is about as far removed from the financial world as you can get.

It was only later, when I became really interested in small business and entrepreneurialism in sales, that I really started to learn about what the financial system meant. I set up a little business. I never purported to be a genius or an expert, but I wanted to learn how to sell, so I set up a little sales training business, under the maxim that the best way to learn is to teach. We moved to the Gold Coast, and I ended up doorknocking along Scarborough Street and Ferry Road in Southport. I got a real estate agent, a hairdresser, a telemarketer, a second-hand store owner, an aquarium owner and a mechanic, and through that process I learned a great deal about business and entrepreneurialism.

Another client I got was a mortgage broker. That was in about 2005, just a couple of years before the global financial crisis. The financial system had become increasingly complex. Mortgages were sliced and diced and bundled into products that were so opaque, but the ratings agencies deemed them safe. In Australia, we had things like low-doc loans, but they were better described in the United States as NINJA loans—no income, no job or assets. When that system collapsed, it destroyed the livelihoods of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people, and it brought the world to the edge of financial ruin.

Some historians like to say that capitalism began with tulips—but not literally, of course. The Dutch tulip mania of the 1630s was one of the first times that people bought and sold assets purely for speculative profit. Single bulbs were sometimes traded for more than the price of a house, and, when the market collapsed, fortunes were lost. That lesson is timeless. Markets can be exciting and innovative, but, without clear rules and protections, consumers are exposed to unacceptable risks. This bill ensures that Australians participating in asset markets have safeguards against such catastrophic outcomes.

That experience also provided a lesson about how money works and how the economy functions. Working with a mortgage broker at the time, I got really interested in the financial system and I learned a little bit about how it all works. The most fascinating illustration was the story of goldsmiths and how they would be safe keepers for people's gold. They would take in the gold. They soon worked out that not everybody was coming back to take all of the gold out at the same time, so they could lend that gold out and earn interest on it. By lending that gold out, they were able to provide loans to merchants, farmers and entrepreneurs, and they fuelled trade, business growth and investment, creating more credit, leading to more economic activity, and creating jobs and wealth. Businesses with credit could expand, improve goods, services and infrastructure, and benefit people. But, if too many deposits were demanded at once, the system collapsed—just like the GFC and FTX—and ordinary people got hurt.

So, without clear rules, customer assets can be exposed and customers can be left devastated. This bill addresses that risk, setting clear rules, custodial standards and licensing obligations so that Australians' assets are protected while also allowing innovation to thrive.

Crypto is a bit of a mystery. I am no crypto bro. It is not easily understood by many Australians. Despite its glamour and appeal, I don't believe it is quite as revolutionary as what the goldsmiths were able to create with the beginning of the creation of credit. But it does represent a further evolution of the financial system. It's got the potential to make business cheaper and improve productivity and efficiency by lowering the costs of financial transactions. The benefits are significant. The Tech Council of Australia previously estimated in 2022 that supporting a responsible digital asset sector could add up to $60 billion a year to GDP by 2030. It suggested that digital assets could reduce retail payment costs by up to 80 per cent by 2050 and save consumers around $4 billion annually in transaction fees. So, while this does not rival the original development of credit in its impact, it has got the potential to further enhance the way financial systems operate.

That's why clarity is essential not only for consumers but also for operators. At present, that clarity is lacking. ASIC's taken a number of enforcement actions, but the outcomes of those actions have been varied and, according to legal analysis, they have provided only limited guidance to the industry. The Australian crypto sector has raised concerns that an apparent regulation-by-enforcement approach has not been a fair or efficient way to resolve uncertainty. Fragmented regulation has increased compliance costs, created barriers to market entry and in some cases inhibited investment and innovation, and it also makes it hard to work out what a business has to do, while leaving gaps for ordinary consumers.

This work fits within the government's statement on an innovative Australian digital asset industry. One of the other things raised in that statement is the problems around debanking, which occurs when a bank declines to provide banking services or withdraw those services from existing customers not because of wrongdoing but because of perceived risk. Businesses have accounts closed with little notice, and digital asset businesses are commonly debanked due to regulatory uncertainty.

This digital asset bill addresses all of these risks. It requires digital asset platforms to hold proper licences to segregate customer assets to meet minimum custody standards so that Australians can innovate and invest in crypto without gambling their savings. Digital assets are no longer a fringe curiosity, and so I recommend and support this bill.

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