Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I'll start by acknowledging that I've been approached by quite a lot of people in the community—not just constituents but people from right around Australia—who have expressed a broad range of concerns with the Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill 2019, so much so that I won't be supporting it. The sorts of concerns that have been raised by constituents include everything from concern that it's designed to push people into the clutches of the banks so that they have to engage in the banking system to concern that it's an attack on people's fundamental right to use cash. An interesting line of argument, which I think has some merit, is: if Australia does eventually reach negative interest rates, cash will assume new importance but this bill will diminish the ability of people to use cash.

I would add to these concerns what is perhaps the biggest concern to me personally—that is, this bill is simply not necessary. It's theatre by a government that is trying to be seen to be doing something about the issue of money laundering by introducing into this place a bill that does something which we just don't need. At the moment, as all members would know, there's already a requirement to report transactions over $10,000. That and the other laws of the land such as the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, the Financial Transaction Reports Act 1988, the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Rules Instrument 2007 (No. 1) and the Financial Transaction Reports Regulations 1990—in other words, we have an abundance of laws to do with money laundering and the black economy. The problem is that those laws are not being implemented and enforced; that's the problem. That's what the government and the opposition should be focusing on: the weak governance we have in this country and the weak enforcement and regulatory framework we have in this country. That's the reason the black economy exists. That's the reason money laundering occurs.

That concern about weak governance and enforcement and regulatory agencies is one of the reasons I've been so preoccupied with the Crown casino crisis over the last couple of years. It's not that I have an unhealthy obsession with Crown casino or James Packer; it's that I see the Crown crisis as an excellent case study which really illustrates the problems we have in this country and the problem that agencies are not doing their jobs. Last week there was the remarkable video evidence provided by whistleblowers, who were in fact casino inspectors inside the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation. It was unambiguous evidence of money laundering going on inside the private gaming rooms of Crown casino. Who can forget the images from last week of three gentlemen—apparently it looked like they had come in from overseas—with an Aldi freezer bag, no less, containing what we estimate to be over $3 million in cash. Where was AUSTRAC? How can that be going on at Crown casino? This isn't just about Crown now; this is about a question mark over AUSTRAC.

We all know that casinos attract trouble. We all know that casinos are just about the best place in the country to launder money. You would think then that the people who own and run the casino and that the people who regulate the casino, like the VCGLR, and the people who have a particular interest in money laundering, like AUSTRAC, would have a keen eye on what's going on there—but obviously not. Those whistleblowers, those gambling inspectors who have had to break ranks because the VCGLR is doing nothing about what is going on at Crown, tell me that that sort of scene—millions of dollars in an Aldi bag—happens repeatedly in any one month. I understand it was going on as recently as seven weeks ago. You would think that AUSTRAC would have had a wake-up call. You would think that, since last week, AUSTRAC would have got in touch with me and asked for the names and contact details of those two whistleblowers. But there has been silence. I can only assume that AUSTRAC not only allowed the money laundering to go on but doesn't have an interest in the unambiguous evidence that was made public last week.

But it's not just AUSTRAC; when you look at Crown, just about every agency I can think of has failed us. The Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation's own inspectors have had to turn whistleblower because the people who are running the VCGLR are either dunderheads or they are corrupt. They are the only two options: they are dunderheads or they are corrupt. That is why the inspectors from inside the VCGLR have had to break ranks.

What about the Victorian Police? What are they doing about what's going on in Crown? Nothing. I've been told by ex and serving Victorian police officers that they are told not to go to Crown and they refer to Crown as the 'Vatican'—a law unto itself. What about Border Force? Can we rely on them in Australia? No, because we now know that a number of witnesses have spoken up about flights coming in and out of Australia saying that the first time they land is in Melbourne and the aircraft aren't checked and the people on the aircraft aren't checked. We heard a remarkable story from one whistleblower, a Crown driver. He spoke about two Chinese gentlemen getting off a plane for a couple of days at Crown with 15 bags! Given the other evidence we cross-reference it with about the Aldi freezer bag with $3 million in it, I have a sneaky suspicion that I know what's in those 15 bags—probably millions of dollars of cash, drugs, guns and who knows what else. So what is Border Force doing about it? Nothing.

You would think that ASIC would have a particular interest in what goes on in a place like Crown Casino. There is no evidence that they are doing anything about what is going on—even though it is an open secret that majority shareholder James Packer is in almost daily communications with the CEO of Crown. What right does one shareholder in a company have to receive privileged information from the management of that casino? I take this opportunity to call on ASIC to look into that particular matter and the cosy relationship between James Packer and John Alexander, in particular. I call on ASIC to have a look at that relationship and to see if it is unlawful and whether or John Alexander is providing privileged information to one shareholder—information which is not being made available to other shareholders.

What is the Australian Stock Exchange doing about this? What is the ASX doing about the fact that it has been repeatedly deliberately misled by Crown Casino? I remind the House that about two years in this place I made a number of allegations about Crown Casino and, in response, Crown Casino put out a full-page ad in the national papers in which it rebutted all allegations, and John Alexander put his name to it. Of course, afterwards, Crown was found to be guilty of two of the offences that I had raised as allegations and Crown was in fact fined $300,000. What has the ASX done about the fact that it was misled by Crown Casino and was misled again just recently when 60 Minutes and nine newspapers ran their expose of Crown? Again, Crown put out a full-page ad in the newspapers rebutting ambiguous claims of wrongdoing at Crown. That's at least twice that we can think of where Crown has misled the Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange has done nothing about it.

What other mechanisms are there in this country, when you've got AUSTRAC—fail; VCGLR—fail; VicPol—fail; Border Force—fail; ASIC—fail; and ASX—fail? Who can the community turn to? You would think that the community could turn to their political representatives to do something. So let's look at our track record. When the allegations in nine newspapers and 60 Minutes appeared a couple of months ago, I sought to move a motion in this place that would establish a parliamentary inquiry into the corruption at Crown, the failure of our regulatory agencies and the unhealthy relationship between Crown and politicians serving and former. What did this place do? It voted it down. Just when the public most needed their political representatives to come to their aid and to do something to sort out a mess, the government and opposition voted against the parliamentary inquiry. Just last week, in response to the remarkable video evidence of money laundering at Crown Casino, and other evidence I released last week from a driver who was picking up people from these 'black flights' at the Tullamarine private jet base, I sought to move a motion in this place to establish a royal commission. What happened? It was voted down—again.

What do the government and the opposition have to hide? If they've got nothing to hide they would have no objection to a parliamentary inquiry and they'd have no objection to a royal commission, and a royal commission it needs to be. It is no good having this unnecessary bill today, in which we're going to make cash transactions over $10,000 illegal. There is no point doing things like that when we have much bigger and much deeper problems. What do the government and the opposition have to hide? Is it the amount of the political donations you get from people like Crown Casino, who are deeply corrupt? Is it to protect your mates, like Conroy, Coonan and Bitar, who are now associated with Crown Casino? What's going on here? If you've got nothing to hide, you should have supported the parliamentary inquiry and the move for a royal commission.

I'm talking a lot about Crown Casino here in regard to this cash bill, but I think it's the best example I can find to illustrate the fact that the problem in this country is not a lack of regulation, when it comes to misconduct and money laundering in particular; it's the fact that our politicians are not doing their job, our enforcement agencies are not doing their job and our regulatory bodies are not doing their job. If we want to do something to improve this country and to crackdown on money laundering, we should be having a proper inquiry into what's going on and we should be making these agencies do their job. I take the opportunity to point out that the Victorian government could also do the same. The behaviour of the Victorian gaming minister, who reckons the VCGLR is doing a great job, has become a high farce. She is saying at the same time that VCGLR inspectors have turned whistleblower, releasing evidence from Crown's own security cameras, because their bosses in the VCGLR are either corrupt or they are dunderheads. And you have the Victorian gaming minister saying 'I have all the faith in the world in the VCGLR.' And is Daniel Andrews any hope? No—useless. Nothing to say, move on—further proof of this bizarre and at least legal corruption in the relationship between Crown Casino and the gambling industry and political establishment.

Heavens, don't we need an integrity commission in this country—an independent, strong integrity commission with teeth! They could look into all these issues. Unfortunately, the Attorney-General and I are going to have to continue to disagree with his decision to appoint the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, ACLEI to look into the Crown crisis. I have a lot of time for ACLEI, as far as its remit goes—and I wish it well in its current inquiries into Crown—but I note when I looked at their website just yesterday that the public hearings about Crown that are being held by ACLEI in Melbourne next week are only to look into Border Force. No-one is looking into AUSTRAC. As we are talking about money laundering today I hope we would agree that AUSTRAC is central to dealing with money laundering, and there's a huge question mark over AUSTRAC. Surely there has to be the most robust inquiry into AUSTRAC and all these other federal organisations—Border Force and ASIC. And ASX, the company, should be looked at as well.

I won't be supporting this bill. It is entirely unnecessary. It is an unhealthy distraction from the reality, which is that our problem is not an absence of money-laundering rules and regulations. The problem in this country is that we have weak governance, politicians who want to hide from the truth and from scrutiny, and just about every agency I can think of at the federal level, and in Victoria at the state level, that's related to money laundering is useless when it comes to money laundering. By some estimates less than one per cent of money from crime is intercepted in this country, and, when you can have an allegation like money laundering last week and AUSTRAC has not even given me a call and asked for the names of the witnesses, it is no wonder that this is so.

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