Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On the initiative of the Group of Seven, the Financial Action Task Force was created in 1989 to develop policies to combat money laundering. In 2001, it added the enormously problematic issue of terrorism financing to its mandate. The Group of Seven was concerned with the billions of dollars raised by the trafficking of human beings, arms and drugs and by the issue of tax evasion and cybercrime. From these crimes, more crimes were funded—crimes which included child abuse. Back in 2015, during the years of coalition misrule, the Financial Action Task Force reported that Australia had failed to comply with some critical standards. What did the coalition government do about it? As you'd expect, nothing much, for year after year after year.

In our first term, the Albanese Labor government is introducing the reforms that will give Australia's anti-money-laundering and counterterrorism-financing activities some badly needed teeth. We're working on an important area of vulnerability in the relationship between such people as lawyers, accountants, real estate professionals, and dealers in precious stones and metals. It's an area which is increasingly used to launder money. The Financial Action Task Force has pointed out that diamonds, other jewels and precious metals carry value in small, easily transportable quantities. They are traded in international transactions by the most modern means available, by multinational companies and major financial centres. They are also traded in local markets by dealers who include, in the words of the Financial Action Task Force, 'very poor individuals in some of the most remote and troubled places on the planet'. These transactions might be exchange based, government regulated deals or may take the form of anonymous cash given for goods in hand. Dealers understand the risks of theft and fraud—diamonds might not be what they are claimed to be, for example. But new money-laundering methods are not necessarily on the radar in the same way.

Thanks to the coalition's usual neglect, Australia has become one of only five jurisdictions, out of 200, which did not regulate appropriately or at all in the complex modern terrain encountered by dealers and by real estate professionals, who are facing challenges of their own, together with lawyers and accountants. I suppose coalition members thought, as they often do, that these things would just somehow sort themselves out. They thought things like aged care and housing supply would just miraculously take care of themselves.

This puts us at serious risk of being greylisted. The grey list is not a list is not a list you want to be on. It's politely referred to as the 'other monitored jurisdictions'—in other words, places the world needs to keep an eye on. It's one step above the blacklist of 'non-cooperative countries or territories'. This was happening while the coalition was visibly harassing almost half a million Australians, who had committed no crimes at all, with unlawful debt notices. The coalition's shameful and disgraceful pursuit of robodebt victimised innocent people. It insulted honest men and women and caused untold misery and distress to them and to their families. And let us never forget the more than 2,000 people who received a robodebt letter and then took their own lives.

This bill, the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2024, will implement effective measures to combat real financial crime by real criminals. Money laundering is meant to be challenging to authorities, and it is. The Australian Institute of Criminology, created by the Whitlam Labor government, is Australia's national research and knowledge centre on crime and criminal justice. Its role was and remains that of promoting justice and reducing crime by undertaking and communicating evidence based research to inform policy and practice. The AIC has recently conducted research which demonstrates the uses organised crime makes of money laundering. Money laundering is a means of getting away with crimes and a means by which criminals avoid detection and go on with whatever it is that they were doing without being disturbed. What they're doing is harming Australians and Australian society. The AIC has found that, when an organised crime group was involved in money laundering, the amount of crime related harm it caused increased by 49 per cent, compared to the harm it would have caused if it had not laundered the money. Money laundering allowed these groups to reinvest in themselves.

It's estimated that serious and organised crime has cost the Australian community up to $60 billion in just the one year of 2020-21. Legitimate markets have been distorted. That means economic activity itself is being distorted. Getting away with anything emboldens people. Getting away with criminal activity encourages the repetition of crimes and increases the likelihood of greater crimes. Money laundering has contributed to the growth and commission of such crimes as the illicit drug trade, child abuse and terrorism. Something clearly needs to be done, and we're doing it.

The bill is also directed at reducing the regulatory burden on businesses, making it easier for them to understand and implement effective measures against these crimes. The reforms will help produce better quality financial data so that businesses can better protect themselves. They're the product of extensive consultation with the affected sectors and with national security, law enforcement and regulatory agencies.

Businesses providing one or more of the services currently being exploited by organised crime and money launderers will have to put in place measures to protect themselves. Those measures will include processes that allow for easy and early identification of criminality or potential criminal activity. They will need to enrol with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, which is AUSTRAC, established under the Labor government by Bob Hawke. They'll need to develop and maintain an appropriate program tailored to their business, along with conducting and maintaining due diligence and record keeping. Certain transactions and activities designated as 'suspicious' will have to be reported.

We don't want this to be onerous. Regulations need to be kept to a necessary minimum. They need to be simplified, without obtuse language and relevant to our times and circumstances. The businesses involved will have flexibility in meeting their obligations. The costs and compliance will vary from business to business. They don't all face the same level of risk, and we're sensitive to that. AUSTRAC will work with industry to develop sector-specific guidance on the new regime. It is there to help inform, and its scaled-up call centre will address any questions that will arise from different businesses.

AUSTRAC understands the increasingly sophisticated methods used to disguise the proceeds of crime and integrate those funds back into the financial systems. International trade is of particular interest to those wishing to move illicit money. They can attempt to hide their funds in the sheer volume of transactions. People conducting honest businesses may be either unaware or confused by the complexities of trade financial products and import/export processes.

Illegality is more difficult to detect because reporting entities will probably not have oversight of the whole transaction chain. It is relatively easy to hide what you're doing in multiple supply chains with multiple processes in multiple jurisdictions. There are many involved parties with many transactions which take place at great speed. The outcome we're seeking with this bill is improved and enhanced deterrence, detection and accurate reporting, protecting the Australian public and legitimate businesses. We'll be doing this by helping those who are at the frontline carrying out law-abiding businesses. We don't want those businesses abused. We understand their situations are individual to them and that due diligence will be different in different places.

The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill is also aimed at modernising the regulation of digital currency, virtual assets and payment technology. We want to ensure the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act keeps pace with the increasingly digital nature of our global financial system. We're closing the gaps that professional criminal organisations seek to exploit.

This bill is preparing us for the realities of today's world and the likely and possible directions of future development. We've demonstrated our commitment in this year's budget, allocating $166 million to implement the proposed reforms which are well overdue. This is an investment which will enable AUSTRAC to implement a new regime that has been simplified at the same time it's being expanded. As world trade grows, so does money laundering and its possibility of financing crime such as terrorism. We have to understand the risks and deal with them practically for the sake of the wellbeing of the people of Australia.

We need to do this efficiently and well in a way that is appropriate for Australia, and that is what we are doing here and now. I commend the bill to the House.

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