Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2026
Ms STANLEY (Werriwa—Government Whip) (11:29): We live in an age of breakneck speed and change, but, surely, the rate of change nowadays is unlike what was ever encountered in any previous generation. This is especially the case in the banking, finance and investment sector. It's an area I know extremely well, having worked in the banking industry for decades before entering this place.
Much of this change of course is positive. It has made our lives easier. For example, gone are the days of lining up at the bank on a Friday afternoon looking for a lost passport, waiting for cheques to clear or storing share certificates.
Internet banking, tap and go and digital wallets are now the norm. Unfortunately, the technology that makes the lives of everyday Australians easier is also the technology that can assist organised crime, especially money laundering. The legislation before us today was foreshadowed by the minister in October 2025, in his address to the National Press Club.
Specifically, it delivers on the government's commitment to crack down on money laundering through high-risk mechanisms, especially crypto ATMs. The ATM, in the way we understand them, was first introduced into Australia in the early 1980s as individual networks. By the 1990s, they'd progressed to a point where they were interconnected as part of a network, greatly enhancing their effectiveness and benefit to consumers.
Banking ATMs are familiar to all of us. There are currently well over 20,000 ATMs in Australia, but a more recent addition to the ATM family is crypto ATMs. Australia has the highest number of crypto ATMs in the Asia-Pacific region, from a modest 23 in 2019 to around 2,000 today.
Australia is ranked third in the world in the number of ATMs. To be clear, cryptocurrencies are a genuine, legitimate form of investment that many thousands of Australians use. This legislation is not aimed at the users or at Australians.
When crypto is purchased online through a bank account, traceable transactions are created. This is not always the case when crypto is purchased with cash through a crypto ATM. As a result, the ability for our security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies to trace those transactions is far more limited, and this opens the door for organised crime and money laundering.
There are approximately 150,000 transactions every year through crypto ATMs totalling $250 million. Of these transactions, 99 per cent are deposits—that is people placing money into the machine and gaining crypto in exchange. The Australian government agency tasked with anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing is AUSTRAC.
The bill before us amends the 2006 Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act to give AUSTRAC the power to restrict the use of high-risk products, services and delivery channels. In particular, the new framework will enable the AUSTRAC CEO to impose general, sector-wide restrictions on high-risk mechanisms that are obviously being exploited by criminal actors.
This will apply where the existing powers are not enough to combat the identified risks and disrupt illicit financing and other money-laundering activities. Now to the specifics of the bill. Schedule 1 pertains to regulating the use of high-risk mechanisms which are in any high-risk product, service, delivery channel or thing.
It introduces a new power for the AUSTRAC CEO to restrict or prohibit high-risk products, servicing delivery channels which criminal actors are exporting to harm the community. This could include cryptocurrency ATMs, which are used by reporting entities to provide a designated service. The framework will require the AUSTRAC CEO to take a number of matters into account when considering whether a restriction or prohibition is necessary and in the public interest.
These include the nature and effect of harm, whether there are alternative channels to provide this service and the effect the proposed restriction will have on the harm. A minimum 30-day consultation period will be mandated before the AUSTRAC CEO makes a decision, unless, of course, an urgent circumstance exists. The new power will support a flexible, risk based approach to emerging and evolving money-laundering and terrorism-finance risks.
It is not intended that the power be used to restrict or prohibit a reporting entity from using a high-risk mechanism merely because it involves digital assets or speculative activity or presents financial or investment risk. Schedule 2 relates to the meaning or definition of financing terrorism. It will amend the definition of financing terrorism in section 5 of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 to reference new offences introduced into the Criminal Code Act 1995 for financing a state sponsor of terrorism.
Schedule 3 relates to technical amendments to better support businesses to implement their obligations under the anti-money-laundering and counterterrorism financing regime by clarifying and putting beyond doubt the operation of the provisions. Money laundering and financing terrorism are a scourge. Crypto ATMs allow money to be turned into digital currency that can be sent instantly and virtually anonymously anywhere in the world.
Further, many in our communities—the most vulnerable—have been subject to the crypto ATM scams. The risks to individuals and our nation are obvious. Organised criminals are clever.
They are always looking for new ways to launder money and to get around the rules. Sadly, one of the disadvantages of the advances in technology is that platforms like crypto ATMs have allowed this criminal activity to converge and overlap, when once they operated in their own individual silos. We've seen this with the Adass Israel Synagogue attack, the illicit tobacco trade and other things.
The bill before us addresses these concerns and risk. Public consultation regarding this matter took place in late 2025 and early this year. A consultation paper outlining proposed amendments in schedule 1 and 2 has been released.
Further, I understand that AUSTRAC has begun a proactive campaign to inform Australians about these proposed changes. I commend the bill to the House. Debate adjourned.