Cash-loving Aussies are using Wednesday’s nationwide Optus outage as “proof” that becoming a completely cashless society would be a “total disaster”.
At least 10 million customers were left without service for more than nine hours after an outage was triggered by a fault in the provider’s core network.
Businesses across the country were left scrambling as those that rely on Optus couldn’t use their EFTPOS machines.
This meant businesses had to rely solely on cash payments if they wanted any hope of trading on Wednesday – a move that isn’t easy in an increasingly cashless society.
Aussies who have been pushing back against the phasing out of physical money used the outage as fuel, saying the ensuing chaos is undeniable truth that “cash is king”.
Now, they are turning on the government and the banks, slamming the decision to reduce the number of ATMs and bank branches.
One TikTok user, who goes by the handle @giggles_in_the_dark, filmed a furious rant after coming across a recently erected “cash only” sign as a result of the Optus blunder.
“The fact this sh*t still happened and yet the Australian government are removing banks and ATMs to make it even harder to get cash out is such a f**ked thing to do,” she said.
“Make society cashless? No, f**king we need cash.”
She continued her rant in the caption, adding: “Give us back our ATMs and banks, let us be a cash society. Stop controlling us when you can’t control these issues.”
She is far from the only Aussie who feels this way, with young mum Therese Callaghan saying the situation really showed how much people rely on their phones.
“Like, imagine if I didn’t have cash and I needed to transfer money at the petrol station,” she said.
She added: “They’re trying to take away cash. Imagine. Cash is king guys”.
Last month, new data seemingly reaffirmed fears from cash-loving Aussies that nation is being “herded” into digital banking against the will of many.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) said that a significant number of bank branches have vanished in the last year.
APRA’s latest findings, covering the 12 months leading up to June 2023, show 424 bank branches or 11 per cent of Australia’s overall branches, have disappeared.
The data highlighted a rapidly declining trend in the number of ATMs available to the public.
The past year witnessed an 11 per cent reduction in the number of ATMs, with more than 700 cash machines removed.
Since 2017, Australia has seen a staggering 60 per cent decrease in operational ATMs, leaving fewer than 6000 cash machines across the country.
During the outage, popular Facebook group Cash Welcome posted that only people with “notes and coins can buy stuff” on Wednesday, while trains, businesses and consumers have been left “stranded”.
“Cash – don’t leave home without it,” the post read.
One Facebook user wrote: “Can anyone imagine what will happen if we go cashless in this country. It will be a total disaster, we all must stop a cashless Australia from happening. If every person went to there (sic) bank just once a week and withdrew cash we could avoid this stupidity.”
Members of the Cash is King group also jumped on the situation, with many using it as an opportunity to essentially tell the rest of the country “I told you so’.
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“There’s a price to pay for convenience & laziness. Have cash, and these situations won’t be an issue,” one person said.
“Goes to show just how reliant/vulnerable we are by using technology,” another said.
Many have taken aim at cashless businesses, saying it is “hilarious” that places that previously refused cash are now “begging for us to find the nearest ATM”.
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