Calls for central bank to reduce ‘unfair’ costs for consumers and stop businesses ‘being gouged’

Six Labor MPs are urging the Reserve Bank to ban all surcharges for every debit transaction and dramatically reduce merchant fees for businesses, asking the central bank to go further than the government’s pledge to stop surcharges only on card payments.

Jerome Laxale, the member for Bennelong, called the extra fees people pay to use their own money a “rort”, and said the RBA needed to step up. He led a submission, with five Labor colleagues, to the RBA’s review of card payment surcharging, saying the system needed major updates beyond those the government had already committed to.

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