Small businesses, particularly the ones run by people who should have stuck to working for someone else, might very well raise their prices to compensate for the removal of card surcharges.

That is what they should have done in the first place!

Most people are incapable of running a business. They have never heard about the necessity of a business plan, essential from the moment you think about going into business, big or small. Very simply, you decide how much you want to make, then how much it is going to cost to realise that income. Writing a business plan might very well put the kibosh on the idea - which is better than going broke after going into hock to realise your dream, which might be all it is.

Good riddance to the surcharge, a festering sore to those who object to ‘paying for paying’. Most countries have always banned surcharges, except for three who've permitted it only for certain circumstances. It's one of the very few things the Albanese government has got right. And, despite the hysteria from certain types of economists and dud business owners, there are far more small businesses that have gone under through incompetency than have failed because of the Albanese government or any other.

Many of the failures and those still failing, wanted a “cashless” society out of sheer selfishness. And, if some lunatic hadn't come up with the idea that allowed them to arrogantly refuse cash, they might have survived.