“We want to be close to our friends in the US on these issues as much as we can,” Australian Senator Andrew Bragg told Cointelegraph.
Australian Senator Andrew Bragg has met with US Senator Cynthia Lummis to discuss possible collaboration on cryptocurrency regulation between the two countries.
Senator Bragg is a pro-crypto politician from the Liberal Party, a center-right conservative party, who has been one of the driving forces behind a proposed forward-looking regulation plan in Australia.
Last year, he led the Senate Committee on Australia as a Financial and Technology Center (ATFC), which put forward 12 sweeping regulatory proposals related to taxation, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), and business licensing. Two months later, Treasurer Josh Frydenburg signaled his intention to begin implementing at least six of the proposals by mid-2022.
Since then, the proposals, perfected and embodied in the Digital Services Law, find their application up in the air. With federal elections set to take place next month, it is unclear if the law will pass should voters do not support the opposition Labor party, as it has yet to offer a concrete stance on the cryptocurrency sector.
Bragg and Lummis’s Conversation
Bragg spoke with Lummis, who is a well-known cryptocurrency supporter and Bitcoin (BTC) hodler, via video call this week and told Cointelegraph that the discussion focused primarily on “opportunities for regulatory equivalents.”
Although he did not want to go into details, Bragg stressed the importance of aligning himself on as many issues as possible with the United States, given the historical partnership between the two nations:
“I see it as an area of economic growth, as a security objective, because we have a unique relationship with the United States, which is cultural, economic, and military. Therefore, we want to be close to our friends in the United States on these issues as much as we can.”
He also suggested that both governments are looking to establish global standards for crypto regulation, noting that, “President Biden’s executive order is reasonably similar to what Treasurer Frydenberg published last December.”
“If two large and sophisticated financial economies like the United States and Australia come together, that could help drive standards in other parts of the world,” he said.
As for collaboration, or at least regulatory equivalency, Bragg noted that, “it seems like they’ve been able to move faster in bringing different types of products to market. So we’ll see what lessons we can learn there.”
One aspect that may differ is the two countries’ approach to launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC), with Bragg noting that the United States seems more receptive to the idea. The Reserve Bank of Australia has stated that there is no compelling need to create a digital currency due, in part, to the country’s instant digital payments network, and Bragg stressed that he was “very cautious” about it at this point.
“I think I’m, you know, probably more aware of the issues and the risks of that. Therefore, we just have to get the Treasury report done on this issue. I hope it can be done quickly after the elections.”
When asked if the Labor vote could derail Bragg’s efforts at cryptocurrency reform over the past two years, the senator frankly stated that he had no idea.
“You’ll have to talk to Labor about it. However, they do not have any policy. So I certainly hope not, but they don’t have any policy,” he said.
By Audy Castaneda
