The Albanese government is likely to expand the nation’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime to require real estate agents, accountants and lawyers to report suspicious cash transactions.
The AFR reports that Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus is consulting on changes that will finally bring real estate gatekeepers into the anti-money laundering (AML) regulatory net.
“As the AFP has said, money laundering undermines Australia’s national security, the economy and social security system”, Dreyfus said.
“The AFP has highlighted how money is laundered through the Australian economy, bankrolling the lavish lifestyles of criminals which includes buying up local real estate, while ordinary Australians are doing it tough”.
Australia remains one of the few countries that exclude such real estate gatekeepers from its laws on money laundering and counter-terrorism financing.
The rules currently apply to casinos, bullion dealers and some solicitors and require them to report transactions exceeding $10,000.
Transparency International Australia chief executive Clancy Moore said action by Australia was long overdue.
“These allegations of money laundering involving Russian citizens, a solicitor and real estate are a textbook case of how dirty money enters our country”, he said.
“It also shows how important the government’s commitment to introduce ‘Tranche 2’ reforms so that real estate agents, lawyers and accountants are required to do greater due diligence and report suspicious transactions”.
In 2003, Australia agreed to implement extensive ‘Tranche 2’ global AML rules for real estate gatekeepers, including accountants, lawyers, and real estate agents.
Following vehement opposition from the professions that the regulations would affect, the federal government repeatedly delayed the implementation of these rules.
This left Australia with some of the weakest AML rules in the world pertaining to property and has cemented Australian homes as a ‘honeypot’ destination for laundering dirty foreign money.
Given this sordid history, the Albanese government will have achieved something special if it finally enacts the ‘Tranche 2’ global AML rules and should earn praise.
Next, the Albanese government should reverse the short-sighted decision in 2009 to allow temporary migrants to purchase existing homes.
Only citizens and permanent residents should be permitted to buy established Australian housing.
