Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) | Hansard source

Yes, Acting Deputy President. Let's have a look at what other businesses have said. The Real Estate Institute of Australia refers to experiences overseas. Even if those opposite and the Attorney-General think slugging mum-and-dad businesses in the local suburban shopping centres $33,000 a year in new compliance costs might be a good idea, don't you think it would have been a good idea to check what the overseas experience of this has been? But no. The Real Estate Institute of Australia referred to recent experiences in New Zealand, where businesses are being slugged with about the same cost, an extra $30,000 a year, and some up to $60,000, in implementation costs—in exchange for what? The government haven't identified what the benefit will be. The government haven't identified the risk to Mr Smith, the local lawyer in the local suburban business area. What is the benefit to him? What is the benefit to the community? There is none. What they've said in New Zealand is that it doesn't work. There are no realisable benefits in terms of preventing money laundering and terrorism financing.

The Queensland Law Society highlighted some interesting overseas references to cost and impacts. They reported that the regulations that this government is implementing are so complicated that only 18 to 50 per cent of entities will be able to fully comply with them anyway. So poor Mr Smith, who's trying to make his local accounting company work with all the other costs, will only be able to comply with 18 to 50 per cent of the paperwork. This is despite the UK spending the equivalent of 75 per cent of the annual UK Ministry of Defence budget on a futile attempt to do so. In the UK, they tried this, and they failed because it is too complicated. It is not risk based, and it will further cripple businesses.

In the UK, the experience was also that, despite the tens of thousands of hours spent on compliance in law firms and all of these companies doing all of this extra compliance, only 0.29 per cent of suspicious activity reports came from the UK legal profession. For all of that effort and for all of that crippling cost, there were almost zero extra suspicious activity reports. That was for lawyers. In the UK in 2019 to 2020, 64 per cent of law firms audited were found to be partially or fully noncompliant because they simply could not achieve what those opposite are now seeking to do on our own small businesses. Merry Christmas to small businesses here in Australia—$30,000 extra for no net benefit to this country and not stopping a single crime. (Time expired)