You may have missed it, but Australia's banned card surcharges and tightened the interchange fee caps, but it's not really solved the problem. Someone's still paying.
Australia already has fantastic banking infrastructure. PayID lets you instantly transfer money between banks using a phone number or email, generally for free. We've also had eftpos for decades, a domestic debit card network that competes with Visa and Mastercard.
Surely we can make paying a merchant directly from your bank account as easy as tapping a card with proper fraud protection baked in?
I appreciate Visa and Mastercard provide genuine value, but like why should moving my own money attract a commission on the transaction? If I sell something for $10k, why should the payment network earn more than if I'd sold it for $10?
This is essential infrastructure. Governments and banks could fund it without taking a commission on every transaction. It doesn't have to be free to operate, just free at the point of use.
It's 2026, for fuck's sake. Surely there's a better way.