Pauline Hanson launches petition against Woolworths’ cash ban

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One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has launched a petition against Woolworths’ cash ban after the retailer rolled out 11 cashless stores.

The supermarket giant transitioned 10 Woolworths Metro stores in Sydney and Melbourne onto completely cashless systems in a bid to make shopping “seamless”.

However, Hanson described it as a “war on cash”.

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“Not everyone has a working credit or debit card that they can use to pay. Woolworths are telling their customers to bank the cash they have in their pockets and then pay by card because it’s easier and more profitable for them than handling cash,” the petition on the One Nation website reads.

“What these retailers are really looking for is the personal information that using a credit card gives them. By matching credit card numbers retailers can use ‘big data’ to track your every purchase and build up a profile for you. Cash provides the privacy that interferes with the plans of big data to know everything about you – all day every day.”

The petition, which has attracted 2,468 signatures, calls for the Senate to force Woolworths to recognise that cash is legal tender.

Woolworths’ move triggered boycott calls when it announced it in July.

However, a Woolworths spokesperson told Yahoo finance that the trial reflects an increasing trend towards cashless payments in its Metro stores.

“We understand cash remains an important payment option for many of our customers and it continues to be offered in all Woolworths Supermarkets and the majority of our Metro stores,” the spokesperson said.

“We will closely monitor the feedback from our customers during these trials.”

There are currently 81 Woolworths Metro stores and 1,050 stores across and supermarkets across Australia.

It comes after One Nation blocked a law that would see cash payments of $10,000 and more banned, with the bill failing to pass the Senate.

However, Australians are already transitioning away from cash and the Covid-19 pandemic sped up the process.

Many retailers have refused to accept cash during the pandemic due to contamination fears, while Australians also took up online shopping in unprecedented volumes.

But Australia still has a way to go before it becomes cashless, the Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe said this week.

He told a payments conference that cash is still important as an emergency payment.

While Australians have suffered major bank outages in recent months, Lowe noted that even if a bank system or a merchant outage has occurred, cash is almost always still accepted.

"So I think many people will want to hold cash."

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