What I get out of it is really to stop people hoarding, using cash once the real negative interest rates are imposed in the future, they're here already but well camouflaged. At least with cash you get face value, in the bank it will be negative as you pay for the privilege of keeping it there, totally apart from inflation. Once legislation is passed bureaucrats can alter the base figure and ultimately it will head toward zero cash, maybe decades away?
The fallacy of the black market argument doesn't hold, they'll find a way to transact, this is squarely aimed at middle Australia, and the coming baby boomers coming into retirement who still like the 'option' of cash.
I wouldn't be surprised if they started very slowly to reduce the cash in circulation, so the old 'money printing' adage may no longer apply.
