On 9 February 2006 , the Senate referred the Exposure Draft of the
Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Bill 2005 to the
Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee for inquiry and
report by 13 April 2006 (separate from the Attorney General/AUSTRAC process).
The Senate committee report has now been released.
Chapter 3 deals with concerns raised in submissions and the Department’s response.
Chapter 4 sets out privacy issues.
The report concludes:
4.72 Despite expressing optimism in the previous chapter that the majority of outstanding issues will be resolved before finalisation of the regime, the committee does remain concerned about the apparent lack of formal consultation with privacy, civil rights and consumer representative groups in the development of the regime to this point. The committee is of the view that this may have resulted in some fundamental privacy, consumer and civil rights issues being overlooked. Nevertheless, the committee is also hopeful that these issues will be addressed through the parallel discussion groups established by the Department.
4.73 The committee notes the OPC’s suggestion that an independent PIA would be useful in relation to the Exposure Bill. The committee agrees with this view and believes that a PIA would be beneficial in achieving a more balanced approach to the AML/CTF regime. This is particularly important given the complexity of the Exposure Bill, the vast number of reporting entities and transactions covered by the Exposure Bill’s operation, the amount and type of information to be collected, and the ability of various agencies to access that information. The committee therefore strongly suggests that such an assessment be conducted.
4.74 The committee also notes that the Federal Government intends to address the issue of the small business exemption to the NPPs in relation to reporting entities. However, the committee believes that the concerns raised in submissions and evidence highlight a larger problem in relation to the privacy obligations of reporting entities. The committee’s view is that any PIA should include a review as to whether the privacy protections set out in the NPPs are sufficient for the purposes of the information being collected and handled by reporting entities.
