Australia lacks clear anti-money laundering policy goals

Australia does not have a developed policy setting out what the overall aim of the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing system is meant to achieve or how its success should be monitored or measured, according to the Financial Action Task Force.

FATF's evaluation of the country's AML/CTF regime highlighted the lack of a clear policy direction, making it a challenge to determine how well ML/TF risks are being addressed.

"National metrics about how well the authorities' efforts are addressing ML/TF risks are limited and the authorities were challenged to present convincing evidence about what outcomes their efforts are achieving," FATF said.

One consequence of this is that there has been "somewhat limited" use of financial transaction data by law enforcement as a trigger to commence ML/TF investigations. "This presents a weakness in the Australian system," FATF said.

FATF found that regulators and police were more interested in pursuing the "predicate crime" associated with money laundering (such as drugs, fraud and tax evasion) rather than the money laundering itself.

"Prosecutions for actual ML offences are less common. Australia should expand its focus to ensure that a greater number of cases of ML are being identified and investigated adequately," FATF said.