Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2026

Mr GREGG (Deakin) (17:22): I rise in support of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2026. Technology has changed our lives. It's changed the way we work, it's changed the way we communicate with one another, and it's also led to tremendous productivity increases in organised crime.

Organised crime today is now more borderless, more decentralised and more digitally enabled than could have even been imagined only a few years ago. Traditional fault lines or distinctions between different groups have now evaporated. We are now seeing organised criminals using digital technology to diversify their enterprises in ways that we haven't seen in legitimate business in a very long time, and we're seeing harm caused all around the world.

A significant portion—two to five per cent—of global GDP is in organised crime. It's a serious challenge. Even in Australia, we're losing billions a year to illicit activities.

We've realised that, sometimes, it is not just the individuals or the service providers that can pose a risk around the illegal movement of money. Sometimes services and products, by their very design, pose an unacceptable risk. A lot of speakers in this debate have spoken about crypto ATMs as an example, and it is a very useful one.

These are systems where you put cash in, and it converts it into cryptocurrency, effectively making the entire transaction completely unable to be traced. It means it's all too easy to move illicit money all around the world, having converted it from cash. We know that it's being adopted by scammers.

Observations of some of these ATMs show that most of the users are older people, many of whom have, on further interrogation, been victims of scams. Some estimates say around 10 to 12 per cent of all transactions on these things are scam or organised crime related. While not everyone who uses these things is doing something wrong, there is a disturbing portion who are.

It's like the old wisdom—it is perfectly legal to wear a long black trench coat and carry a big backpack while using a payphone in the middle of the night, and you might be calling your mother and asking her how she is, but there could also be something dodgy going on. Commonsense says something fishy is going on with these devices, and all of the stats prove it.

It's not just a challenge here in Australia. They're noticing it in different jurisdictions in the United States. But, as has just been pointed out by the member for Lindsay, we've gone from having just a few of these devices only a few years ago to now having proportionately some of the most in the world.

There are thousands of these things all around. They're in my community. They're here in Canberra.

Pretty much everywhere I go, I see these devices. You can almost call them money-laundering machines, because they don't have the safeguards and security measures necessary to ensure that these transactions are legitimate, and we've seen that play out. We've seen AUSTRAC already have to intervene with some providers simply because they haven't met simple reporting requirements or had the necessary integrity measures in there.

These devices are bad news. But we also know that criminal enterprises are innovative. If it's not this, they'll find something else.

It was iTunes gift cards. It's all sorts of means. There are so many different ways that value is transferred digitally.

You will see a diverse array of options taken through organised crime. So we do need to be agile, and that means not delaying things for no reason. It means getting on with the job and creating a system that can be as agile as the criminal enterprises themselves, because, if we don't keep up, people are going to continue losing money.

We have also seen the consequences of organised crime being able to thrive. We've also seen the blurring of the lines between state actors and non-state actors, and we've seen disastrous consequences here in Australia. I think of the Adass synagogue attack and other domestic security threats with links to organised crime as well.

These are not the organisations of old. It's not simple to track and trace based on principle, ideology, background and things like that. It's all over the place.

It's pay per service and, with means like cryptocurrency, that is becoming simpler than it ever has been before. These devices are a facilitator. They make it all too easy to convert hard cash into cryptocurrency, enabling the profits from illicit gains to go all around the world without a trace, and that cannot be tolerated.

You can get cryptocurrency. You can convert cash to cryptocurrency in perfectly legitimate and traceable ways. But we know from experience that these ATMs do not have sufficient safeguards.

They are bad news. So they are a good example of what this bill is about. It's about ensuring that we have the flexibility to identify products, services and devices that, by their very nature, pose unacceptable risks of financial crime in this space, and to enable the AUSTRAC CEO to intervene and make sure that service providers are unable to use those means of delivering regulated services.

It is completely common sense, and it is essential, in this dynamic organised-crime environment, to make sure that our laws are consistently able to keep up with those changes in technology and keep up as they identify new pathways. Also, we can't be naive. Not every transaction is through a crypto ATM.

Sometimes they kick it old school. Sometimes they still launder money through cash-intensive businesses or sophisticated corporate and trust structures. Sometimes they use typical money-transfer organisations used around the world all of the time.

There are lots of mechanisms they will adopt. They are incredibly sophisticated enterprises, so we need to be keeping our eyes all over the place to make sure we're keeping up with these actors. But we've identified these particular devices as a key capability of organised criminals—particularly scammers, but we also know the transfer of large sums of illicit gains is going through these devices.

There are legitimate concerns about these devices, and they provide the perfect example of the kind of mischief we're trying to resolve through this legislation. It is important that we adopt these changes as soon as possible. They've long been called for.

They were announced by Minister Burke back in October last year. They've been on the agenda for a very long time, and it is time that we got on with the job of passing these essential laws through. Gone are the days when the threats of terrorism, foreign interference, people smuggling and all sorts of sick crimes that we see happening online were happening in silos.

We see people smuggling, espionage, movement of drugs and illicit tobacco all meshed together in different organisational structures and communication channels. So we have to keep up with that messy, dynamic structure by making sure that we have really flexible laws that enable our agencies to get on with the job of catching the criminals and trying to remove dangers posed to our communities as much as possible, reflecting the same level of sophistication we're seeing adopted by these actors all around the world.

We know it's not just scams; it's cybercrime, it's tax evasion and it's the covering of all sorts of illegal and corrupt practices. They've been identified all around the world as a danger point. We know that digital asset transfers have been identified globally as a key danger point that we need to address together.

Different jurisdictions are trying different things, but this will be an important intervention. We've already seen from AUSTRAC that they are a very capable entity. They are cracking down on these organisations.

There were articles only a month ago about dozens of entities being identified and shut down as part of their work. But sometimes it is just these devices or products or services themselves that really do require intervention. I think that this is an incredibly important measure.

I'm pleased to see that it has been welcomed across the board with some proposed amendments. The principle is important, and it's important that our parliament is united in tackling organised crime and making sure that that cost and risk ratio is always unfavourable to the negative actors. These amendments obviously make key changes, giving new powers to the AUSTRAC CEO, as we've discussed in detail.

They also include some technical amendments about the operation and service of some documents, particularly around claims of legal professional privilege so that documents don't have to be served directly on the CEO, which, as we know, is fairly impractical in most government organisations. There are a lot of common sense reforms, and also reforms that reflect updates to criminal legislation, reflecting recognition of state sponsored terrorism, so that the language of the legislation keeps up with that as well.

As we know, that line between state sponsored and separate—it's all crime, and it has to be managed accordingly. So these are very, very commonsense changes. The consultation periods embedded in there are an important opportunity for affected parties to say their piece.

There will be urgent circumstances where things just have to be shut down like that. Those safeguards are there. The legislation also includes tests that need to be applied.

This isn't the AUSTRAC CEO simply saying, 'I don't like that; let's get rid of it.' There are specific criteria that they need to consider as part of that decision-making process, like the nature of the harm, whether the proposed intervention of removing a service will actually do anything to reduce or get rid of that harm, or whether there are alternative channels for a legitimate service to be provided.

Using the example of crypto ATMs, it could still be done as a legitimate bank user over the counter after identity checks, and there are many other ways. Obviously online through your bank account digital systems, you can completely legitimately buy crypto and do with it what you wish by traceable means, making sure that that integrity of the system remains intact.

They've tried to regulate it, and there is regulation around it, but it simply hasn't been enough, so we have to make sure our laws can be as responsive as possible. Organised crime is something that continues to erode societies around the world. In some parts of the world, it completely dominates it; it surpasses governments and other protective entities in really controlling certain territories.

It has had negative influences all around the world. These global organisations are causing almost unimaginable levels of suffering all around the world, exploiting our most vulnerable people and peddling increasingly dangerous drugs into vulnerable communities. They have no conscience, they have no ethics, but they have a lot of resources and a lot of will, and they have become increasingly sophisticated.

We need to make sure that we have flexible laws that can be implemented quickly and efficiently so that we can deal with risks as they arise. If we consistently have to come back into this place and go through nine committee processes and departmental processes, getting reams of advice in addition to agencies identifying a problem, we will never get anything done.

That is why these actors are hard to catch sometimes for systems like ours; the criminals are far more efficient and effective at making changes than we are as government. So we need to make sure that we are designing laws so they are as agile, so we can keep up and so we can minimise harm in our communities. This isn't just the scale of submarines full of drugs.

This is grandparents in our communities being scammed, being tricked into going to these crypto ATMs and giving up their hard earned funds. These are people in our communities who are suffering as a result of the disgusting practices of organised criminal organisations. This has become a key tool in the toolkit for those actors.

We need to make sure that, as more tools arise, we are getting rid of them as quickly as possible. Again, it does need to be proportionate. We do need to make sure that services that are legitimately used 99.9 times out of 100 can continue to be used.

But when you've got a scenario where a tool or a service is, to a very large extent, really just being used to facilitate organised crime and ill-gotten gains, then something's up. We need to intervene. We need to take a practical approach to these things, and this is incredibly practical legislation.

It's keeping an eye on the level of risk, assessing that risk and ensuring that we are responding in a reasonable and proportionate way. The AUSTRAC CEO has the track record. That organisation has a terrific track record of ensuring that they are monitoring trends and responding quickly.

Our community can also be informed of risks and, when necessary, we can make legislation that responds to those risks as they emerge. The risks of today would not have even been imagined 10 years ago. The use of artificial intelligence, voice cloning and all sorts of technologies to scam our most vulnerable people are becoming more and more sophisticated all the time.

Impersonating me or anyone in this House to call people who trust us and our voices is now all too easy for scammers. Cloning phone calls, cloning the voices of loved ones—this isn't just the prince in another continent promising riches if you send lots of money. It's a lot more sophisticated than that now.

They are making us panic. They are appealing to our emotions. They're not as easy to spot.

It's not the dodgy language in the email where the English is wrong, where the logo is upside down and the wrong colour and where it's all too easy to spot. Smart people are being scammed all the time, and the stigma around that really does need to erode, because Australians—the role of us as potential victims is really to help us stand up to these scammers. There is no shame in being scammed in this era.

They are very sophisticated. It is what they do. I've spoken to a number of constituents who have been scammed, and it often begins with shame.

Intelligent people are ashamed that they fell for it. I know many people who I care deeply about and respect highly who have been scammed. It's happening all the time.

There is no shame in it. These actors are relying on that sense of shame to make sure that people aren't reporting it, but it's important that all Australians, whenever they see scam activity or fall victim to it, are reporting it, because we really do need to respond. It's something that we can only do if we do it together.

We all need to stand up against these folks. If you have been scammed, it's not just about getting your own money back, although that's incredibly important. It's also about getting the intelligence so we can plan and respond and make sure that other Australians are not being caught as well, because this has become a very real threat in some communities.

It's only increasing. The barriers to entry for organised crime have never been lower with AI agents and other technologies making it all too easy to just remotely autoscam, and so we've really got to be very responsive. This bill is all about looking at the services themselves, making sure, when a service is inherently risky, that we can respond quickly and that there are safeguards embedded but, at the same time, that we are agile in an era where we need to be agile if we're going to keep up with the risks to our communities.

We know that the acts facilitated through cryptocurrency and indeed through ATMs are the most atrocious you can think of. It's terrorism. It's the exploitation of children.

It's the movement of dangerous drugs around the world, hurting our most vulnerable community members and undermining the social glue that holds communities together. It is tobacco. It is the topics we've been talking about in this House all day, often facilitated through these very vehicles that we are here to regulate and, where necessary, crush.

I commend this bill to the House and hope that the coalition come to their senses and support it.