Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the chair, I present the final report of the Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre together with accompanying documents. I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

Thank you for the opportunity to make a few remarks about this important report. This select committee was kicked off late in 2019 with a mandate to look at financial technology and regulatory technology. It has delivered already two reports with recommendations which have in large part been adopted and implemented. The whole point of having a parliamentary review of these issues is to ensure that Australians can be availed of the latest and greatest choice and opportunities of financial innovation, in particular, but also that we are appraised and aware of all the consumer protection needs which come with those technological developments.

In relation to this final report, which is amongst the first parliamentary reports into cryptocurrency or digital assets anywhere around the world, this is a matter of interest to many Australians. One in five Australians already has cryptocurrency, and this is a particular phenomenon which skews to younger people. Younger people are interested in digital assets and cryptocurrency, because it provides them with agency and control that wasn't available to prior generations. I think, at the end of the day when you pare it all back, we want people, we want Australians, to have access to the best ideas, the best new options, the most choice, the most agency and the lowest prices. We don't want people to be dependent upon great big institutions like banks. We want people to be able to become the master of their own domain to the greatest extent possible, and that is what I think cryptocurrency and digital assets offer Australians.

There is also a great dividend to the country if we can become a digital asset or a cryptohub, and that is of course more investment and more jobs. The solutions we put forward in the committee's report don't seek to force banks to finance any particular person or any particular company. We wouldn't force a bank to finance a coalmine and we wouldn't force a bank to finance a digital miner. These are liberal solutions in the form of more disclosure but also in terms of forcing the Australian Financial Complaints Authority to have a role here in this space.

Finally, I have a couple of points about the process. This has been a process which has garnered huge attention—more than 100 submissions in just this past six months, public hearings and a huge amount of interest from the cryptocurrency community and beyond. These are bipartisan recommendations, so I would like to place on record my thanks to Senator Marielle Smith, who did a terrific job in being deputy chair of this committee over the most part of two years. I also want to thank the other members of the committee and offer my thanks to Lyn Beverley and CJ Sautelle of the secretariat, who've worked extremely hard with a very difficult chairperson, at times! The product of their work is very, very good.

The committee is a good example of the parliament going into places where it perhaps doesn't always go, and I think that there were probably some words put into Hansard which probably haven't be seen before and probably shouldn't be seen again. But I do think that one of the problems we have is that we are a long way away from the market in general, as a parliament—and I use that term in the broadest sense. In this place, in relation to these issues, we are a very, very long way away from the dynamism and the rapid pace of innovation. So we have tried to listen and tried to respond with a plan that would put consumers first, but we've also tried to maximise the opportunities for Australia to capture this innovation, which is irresistible, hugely disruptive and full of opportunities for our country.