Transparency International Australia congratulates the parliament for passing historic and long overdue Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2024.

Australia’s AML/CTF regime now includes high-risk professions including real estate agents, lawyers, accountants, trust and company service providers, and dealers in precious stones and metals.

Known as ‘tranche two’ entities, these gatekeeper professions often enable either knowingly or unknowingly organised crime gangs to wash their money into Australia’s economy. These professions will now be required to undertake robust customer due diligence and report suspicious transactions to AUSTRAC.

The legislation closes a giant loophole in Australia’s efforts to combat dirty money and illicit financial flows, and will help meet international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Australia was one of only five countries globally to not include these high-risk professions in the AML/CTF regimes and was at risk of being ‘grey listed’ by FATF in the next assessment starting in 2025.

Clancy Moore, CEO of Transparency International Australia said:

“For many years, Australia has been a go-to destination for kleptocrats, corrupt officials and organised crime gangs to wash their ill-gotten gains into our economy, particularly in the real-estate sector.”

“Money laundering robs communities of money for essential services, enables other crimes like drug trafficking, and enriches criminals. We congratulate the Albanese government on passing these historic reforms after previous parliaments had failed on numerous attempts.”

“The carve-out for lawyers to claim legal professional privilege does create a risk of lawyers being the profession of choice for money launders and not reporting suspicious matters to AUSTRAC.”

“Australia weak corporate transparency laws also enable corruption and money laundering to take place. In order to further safeguard Australia against money laundering and corruption, the parliament must pass strong beneficial ownership laws as promised by the Albanese government.”

Transparency International Australia looks forward to collaborating with the government and industry stakeholders to ensure these reforms are effectively implemented helping to reduce the risk of money laundering and terrorism financing in Australia.

More information:

• View TI Australia’s report into “Stopping dirty money in Australia and Cambodia” which shows between 2019 and 2023, 118 properties were settled by Cambodian foreign persons, worth a combined value of $110 million.
• View TI Australia’s submission into the government’s second consultation into the second consultation on modernising Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) regime.