Opposition Senator Andrew Bragg this week introduced a new Bill to Parliament that he reckons would go some way to regulating the wild west that is cryptocurrency and its associated things. Under the Private Member’s Bill, such things are the regulation of digital asset exchanges in Australia. Bragg reckons the government hasn’t done enough to regulate crypto and is therefore taking things into his own hands.
“Australia is losing the race to regulate digital assets. That is why I have introduced a Private Senator’s Bill, the Digital Assets (Market Regulation) Bill 2023,” Bragg said in a statement announcing the Bill.
I have now introduced the Digital Assets (Market Regulation) Bill in the @AuSenate.
Link to the bill and explanatory statement is enclosed.https://t.co/pkjuNfvE0G
— Senator Andrew Bragg (@ajamesbragg) March 29, 2023
In the previous Parliament, the Senate Select Committee into Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre was convened for the purpose of probing the troubled crytpo space. The committee was chaired by Bragg. The committee handed down its final report in October 2021, which made 12 recommendations for changes to various rules around new financial technologies, including crypto. 11 of these recommendations were endorsed by then-Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
But, Bragg isn’t happy with how things have progressed since, annoyed at the fact that instead of using the consultations already undertaken, Labor and the Coalition restarted the process.
“Mr Jones has hurt consumers. Labor has exposed Australians to the crash of FTX last November. There will be more collapses in this unregulated marketplace,” he said, of course pointing to the collapse of FTX and its founders that have plagued much of the tech/finance news cycle over the last four or so months.
“Since November, all we have received from Mr Jones is a skinny pamphlet on token mapping.”
That “skinny pamphlet on token mapping” was paraded by Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers as a way to show the government was looking to “make crypto safer for consumers”.
Either way you slice it, Bragg isn’t happy with the state of cryptocurrency and is taking things into his own hands with this new Bill. A Bill that builds upon a draft one he put forward last year.
“If the government does not want to act, the Parliament must,” he wrote.
“The Digital Assets Bill will put Australia back into the race to regulate. This will protect consumers and promote investment.”
So what does the Bill include?
Clause 3 sets out the objects of the Act, which are: to provide an effective regulatory framework for digital asset exchanges, digital asset custody services and the issuing of stablecoins; to provide for the reporting of information by authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) with respect to designated central bank digital currency; to provide for additional duties of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services; and the regulation of activities relating to digital assets and designated central bank digital currency.
Licensing for exchanges, custody requirements and stablecoins are included in the Bill. Australia can be a digital asset hub whilst protecting digital asset consumers. But we must act now.
This article has been updated since it was first published.