00:00 People in anti-corruption bodies and around the world have been pushing for Australia
00:05 to have these laws for several decades.
00:08 They're called Trench 2.
00:09 And what they would do is they would mean that real estate agents, accountants, lawyers
00:14 and dealers in precious gems and stones would essentially be subject to laws that try to
00:18 stop money laundering.
00:20 It forces them to essentially ask about where funds have come from and do a little bit of
00:25 due diligence, that is checks on things.
00:27 It will pretty much end the practice of people turning up with a suitcase of cash to buy
00:32 real estate, something that has plagued Australia because we haven't had these laws and we've
00:37 been in some pretty grim company, just one of five nations around the world that hasn't
00:43 signed up to these Trench 2 laws.
00:44 Speaking to Anti-Corruption Body Transparency International Australia, this is what the
00:49 CEO Clancy Moore had to say.
00:51 For far too long, Australia has been a very attractive destination for dirty money.
00:57 These laws and the money announced in the budget today will make it much harder for
01:00 criminals, organised crime gangs and corrupt officials to park their money in Australia.
01:05 So are these laws important, Daniel?
01:08 They are.
01:09 You know, Austrac, our financial crimes agency, said that in 2020 alone, a billion dollars
01:15 of funds linked to Chinese criminal gangs was used to buy real estate in Australia.
01:20 A new report from advisory firm Korda Mentha says that 1% of Cambodia's GDP is coming
01:27 to Australia every year, much of that invested in real estate.
01:31 Cambodia is an impoverished nation and yet a full 1% of its GDP is coming to Australia.
01:36 These laws will bring us into line with our neighbours and with other developed nations
01:41 around the world.
01:42 They will put some rigour into these systems and essentially just force those professions
01:47 who deal with large transactions to ask some questions about ones that they think might
01:52 be suspicious.
01:53 Is there much opposition to the laws?
01:55 There is some opposition from the real estate industry.
01:57 They see it as being a regulatory creep and essentially forcing them to do the work that
02:02 they think the AFP and Austrac should be doing.
02:05 But these are the eyes and the ears.
02:07 It's not going to be for every transaction.
02:09 It really is going to be just for ones that are very suspicious.
02:12 This is something that lots of other people have had to do.
02:15 We've already seen a massive crackdown in money laundering through our casinos.
02:18 We're going to now see it through our substantially hot housing market as well.
02:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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