David Feeney (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

it is a mouthful—and a related bill. AUSTRAC's strategic direction statement, as outlined in the 2014-15 budget, states:

The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) is Australia's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing … regulator and specialist financial intelligence unit.

AUSTRAC's vision is an Australian community that is hostile to money laundering, financing of terrorism, serious and organised crime, including people smuggling, and tax evasion.

Under its regulatory role, AUSTRAC oversees compliance with reporting obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 … and the Financial Transaction Reports Act 1988 for approximately 16,000 businesses across diverse industry sectors which include financial services providers, the gaming industry and remittance service providers. As Australia's financial intelligence unit, AUSTRAC collects and analyses financial information provided by regulated entities to assist Australian law enforcement, national security, social justice and revenue agencies, and certain international counterparts, in the investigation and prosecution of serious criminal activity, including terrorism financing, organised crime and tax evasion.

In 2013–14, AUSTRAC will continue to improve and supplement its systems to enhance all aspects of its dealings with its diverse regulated population. AUSTRAC will also continue to provide guidance to regulated entities on their obligations.

The rapid development of technology and the increasing availability of that technology to users throughout the world have significantly increased the dynamics, the profile and the reach of organised crime. In such a global environment, AUSTRAC is a vital agency—an anti-money-laundering and counterterrorism financing regulator and specialist intelligence unit which works with Australian industries and business to provide information about potential criminal activity to our law enforcement agencies. It is at the forefront of the fight against transnational organised crime. Organised crime, as we know, is a significant national security threat and it is a growing challenge. Australian law enforcement agencies have a fine record of working in partnership together to prevent, disrupt or investigate and prosecute organised crime in all of its forms. Former Labor governments have been committed to fight and deter organised crime and we will continue to do that zealously from opposition.

In 2011, the former Labor government established a legislative structure that allowed AUSTRAC to reclaim the costs of its regulatory functions from the businesses that it regulates. The Abbott government has announced as part of the 2014-15 budget that it will now increase the AUSTRAC supervisory levy. The AUSTRAC supervisory levy is an annual charge on reporting entities to pay for the costs of AUSTRAC's regulation.

This bill will be supported by the opposition, but we will support it while drawing attention to the fact that Minister Keenan and the government in doing this are breaking another promise. In opposition, Minister Keenan said:

What we see with these bills is a lazy piece of policy making …

He said:

… this is still poor policy-making.

Minister Keenan said:

It is not reasonable for the government to recoup the costs of running every government agency if that government agency is providing a public service rather than providing direct services to the people who are being asked to pay for them.

Again, Minister Keenan said on 30 May 2011:

AUSTRAC does provide a very valuable service but we believe that it is not reasonable to come back and to ask the 199 largest users to cover the costs of its running, particularly when really this is all about filling the budget black hole that Labor have created for themselves from their enormous wasteful spending up to this point.

So we saw Minister Keenan, in opposition, denouncing Labor's moves to engage in some cost recovery, declaring, pursuant to his own impending Battlelines policy principles, that it was an error in public policy to do this. Now, of course—saying one thing in opposition and doing the exact opposite in government—we have that happening in this bill. In this bill, the very gentleman who condemned Labor for putting a levy on 199 businesses is now proposing to put one on over 1,000 businesses. In government, Minister Keenan has failed to keep faith with his rhetoric in opposition—again and again and again. The irony is that, having lambasted Labor in 2011, he must now eat his words. Minister Keenan has introduced total cost recovery and, as I say, another broken promise.

Minister Keenan criticised Labor's Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre Supervisory Cost Recovery Levy Bill 2011, attributing it to failed economic management, but now he has failed his own test, introducing legislation into this House to increase the levy—to increase the number of entities that pay it by more than fivefold. Minister Keenan has yet again proven that his actions and words in opposition are inconsistent with his actions and words in government. In opposition, Minister Keenan was always eager to condemn the Labor government and, again and again, has been forced from government to not only move legislation written by Labor, embrace decisions made by Labor and support initiatives developed by Labor from office but, here, directly contradict his own actions in opposition.

In fact, it is fair to say that, while we support this bill, we do enjoy the fact that, having said one thing in opposition and done another in government, and having by his own measures and his own tests now failed to properly regulate this area, the minister will now rise to his feet in a few moments and, no doubt, eat a lot of humble pie as he announces to Australia at large and the parliament in particular that this is now a further impost on the cost of doing business in Australia.

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