Around 13 years ago, the Australian Government agreed to implement so-called Tranche 2 global anti-money laundering (AML) rules for real estate gatekeepers – encompassing real estate agents, accountants and lawyers – in a bid to prevent illegal funds from flowing into property.
However, these reforms have been continually postponed amid fierce lobbying by shadowy “vested interests” negatively impacted by the reforms. This has led to Australia having the weakest AML rules in the world pertaining to property:
Australia’s intransigence has seen a conga-line of international authorities – including the Paris-based Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) and Transparency International – deride Australia’s failure to act, which has continually fallen on deaf ears within the federal government.
