Internal documents from the Treasury Department in Australia have been brought to the light by the Australian Financial Review.
As recently revealed internal documents from the Treasury Department in Australia suggest, crypto legislative measures are closer to being implemented in the country than previously expected. Crypto legislation in Australia seems to be about a year away, if everything goes right.
Notably, the documents have been brought to light by The Australian Financial Review, spurred on by the freedom of information laws.
Why the delay, however? The Australian government would prefer to take its time assessing the crypto industry in the country, along with its requirements and demands, as the internal documents say.
Allowing for this time needed, crypto legislation in Australia can seemingly be implemented in the beginning of 2024 at the earliest. The Australian Treasury Department’s internal documents further reveal that the government has plans to release consultation papers in 2023 Q2 regarding the regulatory measures to be taken to guide the crypto industry in the country. Ahead of that, the government will also initiate stakeholder roundtables on crypto licensing and the custody of said assets in Q3 2023.
What else do the documents from the Treasury Department in Australia reveal? The crypto industry in Australia has been looking forward to the upcoming steps in the Australian Labor government’s token mapping exercise, submissions for which were supposed to be closed by March 3, 2023. However, the documents suggest that the ultimate submissions to the cabinet are expected late into 2023, which would further delay the aforementioned crypto legislations, pushing the definitive decision back to mid-2024 or even later.
As the Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers acknowledged, “Treasury expects some stakeholders to be disappointed with the perceived delay in implementing a licensing regime… For example, consumer groups seeking immediate protections and businesses seeking regulatory legitimacy.”
However, as the Treasury states in the documents, an exclusive ‘crypto policy unit’ has been created within the department, which might allude to upcoming positive regulations.