Transparency International Australia is pleased to provide the following submission to the Attorney General’s Department as part of its consultation into modernising Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime.

For too long, Australia has been a major destination of the world’s dirty money. Financial crimes are not victimless crimes. Much of this dirty money flows out of poorer countries, and into the economies of wealthy countries. This robs local people of their national wealth and can distort markets where it ends up – such as real estate.

We support the Attorney General’s proposed steps towards closing the loopholes that enable people to hide corruption and the proceeds of crime. The proposed changes would be strengthened by a concurrent change to increase the transparency of legal entity ownership which currently facilitates the hiding of money flows. Read more on the Government’s consultation.