Photo by: Geralt via Pixabay

Two lawmakers from Australia’s major political parties called on the government to welcome the digital currency system, particularly the bitcoin technology.

Labor senator Sam Dastyari and Liberal senator Jane Hume said that the Reserve Bank of Australia should now embrace the bitcoin technology and extend recognition to it as one of the country’s official currency. Failure to do so will put Australia behind other countries insofar as financial capabilities are concerned, said the senators. The senators have also established a group, named Parliamentary Friends of Blockchain, in order to push the initiative.

According to a report published by the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian financial sector, which is estimated at $145 billion a year, runs the risks of losing its competitiveness in the near future of the state of bitcoin regulation remains unchanged.

“This will be a revolutionary leap for the Reserve Bank and for Australian financial institutions, what we want to do here in Parliament is to create the political environment to allow that leap for an Australian bitcoin blockchain to occur,” Dastyari said in an interview. He believes that bitcoin possesses a huge potential and has played a pivotal role in other financial markets.

“We can’t compete with our Asian neighbors when it comes to producing cheap goods and services anymore. We can compete when it comes to financial services but that is going to mean a big, bold decision,” Dastyari added.

Hume shares the same view, emphasizing the vast opportunities that bitcoin could offer to the government, the academe, and even the private sector.

Senator Matt Canavan from the Nationals political party also supports the need to amend the provisions on bitcoin regulation, and recognize the same as an official currency.

Back in 2015, Canavan contacted the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to investigate the involvement of financial institutions in anti-competitive activities after they closed the bank accounts of around 30 local bitcoin operators. In 2016, however, the ACCC confirmed that the banks are not guilty of any wrongdoing.