Aussie opposition under fire as election looms: ‘7 words is not a crypto policy’
Categories: US
Australia’s opposition Labor party is facing criticism over its lack of formal policy regarding the cryptocurrency industry just days before a national election is expected to be called.Prime Minister Scott Morrison, from the Liberal Party, is expected to fire the starter‘s pistol for a Federal election this weekend. However, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) is well ahead in the polls at this stage and its crypto policies are less than comprehensive.With at least 18% of Australians having invested in crypto at some point, according to new figures from Gemini, cryptocurrency is becoming an election issue that cannot be ignored. Crypto venture capitalist Mark Carnegie said at the Australian Financial Review Cryptocurrency Summit this week that he believes crypto should be a key talking point for the election candidates. “The idea that the Labor Party does not have a policy about what we’re doing about this, it just shows you the failure of leadership,” he said Shadow Minister for financial services Stephen Jones pushed back against the appraisal and said that if the ALP won, it would consider crypto in a wider overhaul of digital payments such as Apple and Google‘s wallets. Senator Bragg believes the Opposition is ill-equipped to handle the crypto industry. He told Cointelegraph on Friday that “Simply put, the Opposition doesn’t have a policy on cryptocurrency.”He said that his party’s plan includes holding consultations with industry stakeholders before making any final decisions, but that his cohort is “ready to follow through” with action. “We want a regime for markets and custody, a board of tax review, and a token mapping exercise. All of these programs are currently underway,” he said.Rather than treating crypto as a financial product, the Liberal plan appears to take an educate-then-incubate approach toward crypto policy.