High Priority - Submissions in respect of the: Competition and Consumer (Industry Codes—Cash Acceptance) Regulations 2025 Reopened

Where there's a will there's a way! Extension granted to 7th November!

I encourage people who may have attempted to lodge a submission this morning 31st October 2025 and discovered that the submissions portal* was closed, to go back now and submit* your submission as the portal was inadvertently closed early.

<edited> since reopened and an extention granted till midnight on 7th November

Link to lodge your submission: https://consult.treasury.gov.au/c2025-707578

When preparing your submission consider highlighting these issues in regards the $500 limit:

1. Lack of Connectivity in Rural Areas and during Disasters

Reliance on digital payments disadvantages people who most need access to food, fuel, and shelter.

2. Those experiencing abuse, financial coercion or other hardships

A person in a Domestic Violence situation who has to use a card to pay for legal advise will have that transaction show up on a bank statement, potentially putting her and her children at even greater risk.

3. Cash payments preserve privacy and autonomy in personal spending decisions. Electronic payments generate a digital trail for every transaction, exposing individuals to unwanted scrutiny and data collection.

4. Technical limitations

Potential to create discrimination via a two-tiered society where only the digitally included can participate fully.

5. Cash allows people to make autonomous, confidential, and practical financial decisions regardless of circumstance.

6. A cash payment cap harms privacy, fairness, and inclusion while failing to serve the fundamental purpose of legal tender.

Jason Bryce from Cash Welcome shares more information as to why the Competition and Consumer (Industry Codes—Cash Acceptance) Regulations 2025 are bad:

https://www.change.org/p/an-australian-cash-and-banking-guarantee/u/34015976

I’ve detailed the steps I took to get the portal reopened below so if you ever come across this situation you know what you can do to get it rectified and how to formally request an extension by email on behalf of yourself and fellow Australians disadvantaged due to clerical error.

Rule No. 1. Be respectful!

Upon discovering that I was unable to lodge my submission via the portal https://consult.treasury.gov.au/c2025-707578 I called Dr Jim Chalmers Canberra Office, had a very pleasant chat with a young lady who agreed that it was most likely someone had set the automatic close tab to the 31st October (and so it stopped at a minute after midnight early this morning), rather than tomorrow the 1st November.

She sorted that out. It was reopened within a hour of drawing attention to the issue.

I also got the email: jim.chalmers@treasury.gov.au to send my submission to (and I was earnestly assured it would be passed on and included) which I have done and have also rung 02 6263 2222 to confirm it’s receipt.

Further before I got that far, I was directed to this website, to lodge a complaint, (reproduced below) https://treasury.gov.au/the-department/contact-us/ministerial-correspondence

To ask for an extention you can generally email the office responsible directly.

Sample Extension Request:

To the office of the Hon Dr Jim Chalmers,

Submissions in respect of the:

Competition and Consumer (Industry Codes—Cash Acceptance) Regulations 2025 are advertised as being open until 31st October 2025. At midday on the 31st October 2025 <https://consult.treasury.gov.au/c2025-707578> submissions were unable to be lodged. This is unconscionable. Many people who went to lodge a submission this morning will be put off making submissions and they may not have considered calling your office. I formally request that you reopen submissions until the end of next week, midnight Friday 7th November to allow those disadvantaged by this clerical error to make their submissions.

*portal reopened within an hour (and an extention granted shortly thereafter) of my raising this issue with Dr Chalmers Office.
Much appreciation to the staff who got onto this immediately.