Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the amendment be agreed to.

The government has moved a two-part amendment in the Senate to address recommendations by the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills in its report on the bill dated 23 March 2011. The bill amends section 49 to extend the power to obtain further information in relation to a report made to AUSTRAC beyond a reporting entity to any other person. This change to the AML/CTF Act is strongly supported by AUSTRAC and law enforce­ment agencies as the expanded information gathering power will assist them in preliminary investigations into serious and organised crime.

The first part of the proposed amendment to the bill provides that a notice requesting information or documents may only be issued if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the recipient has knowledge of the information or possession or control of the document sought. This government amendment will ensure that a person is not subject to this coercive power without proper justification and is in keeping with broad government policy and the recommendation of the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills.

The second part of the proposed amend­ment provides a minimum 14-day comp­liance period where the recipient of the notice is not the reporting entity who initially communicated the report to AUSTRAC. However, the amendment allows a period of less than 14 days where it is necessary and reasonable in the circumstances. The Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills queried whether a 14-day period should be applicable, as this is generally considered as the minimum time in which a response can reasonably be expected. The proposed amendment addresses this issue and ensures that minimum time frames are provided in the legislation. The ability to require a shor­ter time frame recognises that AUSTRAC and law enforcement will often require prompt responses so that they can effectively carry out investigations.

Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The opposition concurs with the amendment and supports the bill as a whole. I would like to note that we can do everything that we possibly can to combat the financing of people smuggling, but people smugglers will continue to ply their evil trade unless we make changes to our immigration system and accept the opposition's proposals to stop the people smugglers in their tracks.

Question agreed to.