Selection of Bills Committee

Anne Ruston

At the request of Senator Cash, I move:

At the end of the motion, add:

"and, in respect of the provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2024, the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee report by 3 February 2025".

This is a really simple motion asking for the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee to report back on this important bill before the parliament comes back next year. Let's be clear about what we're talking about here, money laundering and terrorism financing are serious, serious issues and we agree with the government that they are serious issues. In fact, that's why the coalition passed the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act in 2006.

The Attorney-General has now introduced 165 pages of dense and highly technical legislation that businesses saw for the first time just eight days ago. So let's look at what the government's own impact analysis says. It says that implementing this bill is estimated to result in an additional regulatory burden of $13.9 billion. These costs will apply to more than 100,000 businesses. This includes 90,000 new businesses who have never had to deal with a complex financial regulatory scheme and it appears that, overwhelmingly, they are small businesses.

What sorts of businesses are we talking about? We're talking about businesses in country towns. We're talking about country town lawyers who run small practices in rural and regional areas. We're talking about accountants who do the tax for cafes and bookshops and mums and dads who engage someone to help with their financial affairs. We're talking about the real estate agents who manage your sales and your rentals.

One of the main transaction types we're talking about is dealing with property. If you impose $1.85 billion in new upfront costs on businesses that help you buy a property, what does that do to the cost of your home? This is a new home-buying tax by stealth. We are driving the small law firms closer to the wall with increasing regulatory burdens. What impact does that have on our communities, especially in our small country towns? We've already had stakeholders raising concerns that we're going to make it even harder to get a lawyer in the regions. These are questions worth answering.

Money laundering is serious, but so is helping people buy a home. We want to make it easier, not harder, to buy a home. We want to make it cheaper, not more expensive, with less paperwork, not more. So it is reasonable to say: 'Let's take the time to look at this properly. Let's make sure we get it right, and let's be clear about the timeframes.' There was no exposure draft for the $13.9 billion bill. The most we've had is a few high-level papers circulated by the Attorney-General's Department. The bit that matters—the actual legislation—wasn't released to the public until just eight days ago. Most of the 100,000-plus businesses who will be covered don't even know it's coming. They need time to look at it. They need time to get advice and draft submissions explaining the bits that work and the places where tweaks are needed.

That is how you run a proper committee process, that is how you ensure your legislation is actually fit for purpose, and that is all we're asking the government to do today.

Katy Gallagher

Just on the amendment, we won't be supporting it, obviously. We want this report to be done by 13 November. That is ample time. I would just say to the opposition: just work hard; work hard and get it done.

Opposition Senators

Opposition senators interjecting—

Katy Gallagher

Well, that's your job. That's your job. Your job is to do this work. We're giving you essentially six or seven weeks to do this work. Get it done. There is nothing more urgent. They're overdue reforms. We need to get them done. I think the Senate has shown this week how slow those opposite sometimes are to do any work. They don't want to do any work. We want to get some work done. We suggest that 13 November is more than enough time to get that work done.

Jacqui Lambie

While you want to try and rush these bills, we've got a problem here. Remember, you took a couple of staff off us. When you're talking about our national security—

Opposition Senators

Opposition senators interjecting—

Jacqui Lambie

Yes, I should work seven days a week, right? This is the problem. You are backing us up. You are throwing it in our faces. We don't have enough time because we don't have the resources. You give us stuff about national security, but you don't want us to look at this stuff. This is where we're at. I can't physically get through this at this point in time, so I doubt if the other crossbenchers can either.

Sue Lines

The question is that the amendment as moved by Senator Ruston to Senator Gallagher's amendment to the selection of bills committee report be agreed to.