Below is the message from IB. I can trade currency futures with no problem. Enquiring further about getting permission. "IB Australia only supports currency balances in AUD, USD, EUR and GBP, and clients are able convert between these currencies. If you hold cash balances in currencies other than IB Australia supported currencies (AUD, USD, GBP or EUR), they will to be converted into your nominated base currency. IB Australia clients, when permissioned, can trade in any market available across the IBKR network, even those outside the 4 supported currencies above. However, upon trading any market outside the 4 supported currencies IB Australia will automatically execute Forex conversions to ensure non-supported cash balances are cleared."
That is very strange. There are no fx restrictions in Australia from a regulatory standpoint as long as the broker is AFSL licensed with the ASIC. IB usually never limits assets or asset classes unless there are regulatory hurdles. So, I find it hard to believe that you cannot trade JPY crosses in your IB account in Australia. Never heard of such limitation, I would think that there would be many others who trade fx out of Australia sharing the same issues...?
Spoke to an IB rep late last year on the phone. The answer was no, I can't get over this restriction.