Recommendations
Recommendation 1
5.21 The
committee recommends that the Bill be amended to delay the first stage of
implementation until three months after the date of Royal Assent.
Recommendation 2
5.22 The
committee recommends that AUSTRAC when amending or making further Rules after
commencement of the Act thoroughly consult with industry and other
stakeholders.
Recommendation 3
5.23 The
committee considers that the AML/CTF Rules which provide safe harbour
provisions for customer identification should be re-examined during the review
of the legislation required by clause 251.
Recommendation 4
5.24 The
committee recommends that subclause 6(7) be deleted from the Bill.
Recommendation 5
5.25 The
committee recommends that the Department consider whether Part 6 of the Bill
should be amended to provide the AUSTRAC CEO with powers to refuse registration
as a designated remittance services provider and to de-register providers; or
to maintain a register of persons who are not permitted to provide remittance
services.
Recommendation 6
5.26 The
committee recommends that the penalties for the offences in subclauses 138(3)
and (5) which relate to possessing false documents or possessing equipment for
making false documents be reduced.
Recommendation 7
5.27 The
committee recommends that the Department continue to work with industry groups
and other stakeholders to resolve technical drafting issues including:
- the exclusion of services relating to stored value cards by the
drafting of items 21-24 of table 1 in clause 6;
- the capture of fund managers selling securities on an exchange by
item 35 of table 1 in clause 6; and
- the exclusion of some community bank branches from the definition
of 'owner-managed branch' in clause 12.
Recommendation 8
5.28 The
committee recommends that the Federal Government consider amending the Bill to
include further threshold value limits, to exclude low risk, low value services
(such as the provision of travellers cheques and foreign currency transactions)
from the definition of 'designated services' and that consideration be given to
indexing these thresholds every five years.
Recommendation 9
5.29 The
committee recommends that the Office of the Privacy Commissioner conduct
periodic audits of AUSTRAC's compliance with privacy obligations in its
administration of the Bill.
Recommendation 10
5.30 The
committee recommends that Division 4 of Part 11 of the Bill should be amended
to restrict access to AUSTRAC held information to access for the purposes of
responding to money laundering, terrorist financing or other serious crime.
Recommendation 11
5.31 The
committee recommends that clause 235 be amended to provide that protection
from liability does not extend to actions which breach federal, state or
territory anti-discrimination laws.
Recommendation 12
5.32 The
committee recommends that AUSTRAC work with stakeholders to develop an
objective, non-discriminatory model for assessing the risk of money laundering
and terrorism financing to assist reporting entities in performing their
obligations.
Recommendation 13
5.33 The
committee recommends that clause 251 be amended to provide for review of the
legislation in four years and for that review to incorporate consultation with
industry and other stakeholders.
Recommendation 14
5.34 Subject
to the preceding recommendations, the committee recommends that the Bill be
passed.
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