The Federal Government will release a completed anti-money laundering bill with full details of the rules to be applied to the reforms by the end of this month, but is likely to miss its own deadline for introducing the bill to parliament.
According to Senator Chris Ellison’s senior AML advisor, a complete draft will be released by 27 May. Speculation –which had its roots in Ellison’s speech to the Australian Bankers Association last month that was closed to the media – had suggested that any subsequent consultation after that point would be limited to selected industry groups, not individuals or groups beyond the government’s choosing. The advisor denied this, saying the package will be publicly available for consultation over a three week period following 27 May.
“Essentially, we will now take account of all the submissions, discussions and the agreed points, and we will prepare a final complete draft, which will be the legislation and the rule,” the advisor said. “Different people have been working on component parts. The responsibility now will be to produce a complete draft that everyone can get to look at. That will then be released for comment on 27 May for a period of three weeks to give everyone the opportunity to look at it as a complete draft, an entire package.”
The three week period could anger some groups that had requested an extension to the original consultation period. The CEOs of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and CPA Australia teamed up to attack the government’s approach to consultation. “After two years of consultation, the government released a draft bill in December last year with the aim of introducing the bill to parliament in June,” Geoff Rankin (CPA) and Graham Meyer (ICA) wrote in a joint submission on the reforms. They added that while normally, four months would be adequate for consultation, the lack of published rules (some were yet to be drafted at the time of the submission) make it impossible to assess the reforms.
The Australian Bankers Association also demanded more time, saying the industry was concerned that the package will be rushed and deliver legislation that could cause ongoing operational difficulties.
So far, firms have only seen the draft bill, which has limited detail in terms of the rules. This has led many to reserve judgement on the bill. “It’s been difficult for the industry to assess the impAct at the moment as we don’t have the full picture,” said one senior financial services risk executive. “Austrac is talking about putting out 36 topics where there will be rules, so there’s still a huge amount still to come.” Insurance Australia Group, meanwhile, said it was unable to comment on several areas of the draft bill until Austrac – the new AML regulator –publishes the rules.
Indeed, the draft bill makes mention of Austrac’s rule-making powers under the proposed new Act. However, some are skeptical of the government’s promises to maintain a collaborative approach.
Meanwhile, Labor’s spokesperson on justice and customs has accused the Howard government of ‘panic’ over the AML reforms. Senator Joe Ludwig, said the Howard Government has “moved from inertia to panic on implementing vital anti-money laundering legislation”. According to Ludwig, Ellison has “rushed industry consultation on the reforms” after “the file sat on the desk or Justice Minister Chris Ellison for two years.”
Ludwig said that Ellison should not “retreat an inch from the international standards on anti-money laundering” but did not specify how Ellison had retreated from the FATF guidelines.
The latest missed self-imposed deadline is nothing new. In October 2005, Senator Ellison said “the Government will release an Exposure Draft of a Bill for public consultation in November 2005 for a period of four months.” In the event the bill did not arrive until December.