The AML/CTF Act, the Rules and the 2024 Amendment Act: Australia's anti-money laundering laws

The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth)

The Act creates the concept of a designated service, makes the businesses that provide one reporting entities, and sets out their obligations: enrolment, an AML/CTF program, customer due diligence, reporting, record keeping. It also establishes AUSTRAC's powers and the civil penalty regime. It replaced the narrower Financial Transaction Reports Act 1988 for most purposes.

The AML/CTF Rules

The Rules are a legislative instrument made by the AUSTRAC CEO that fill in the detail: what identification is acceptable, how programs must be structured, what a report must contain. The Rules were rewritten for the reformed regime: AUSTRAC tabled the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Rules 2025 in Parliament on 29 August 2025, and they apply from 31 March 2026. The Rules are the document most compliance questions actually turn on.

The AML/CTF Amendment Act 2024

Passed by Parliament in late 2024, the Amendment Act does three things: it extends the regime to Tranche 2 sectors from 1 July 2026; it simplifies and modernises obligations for existing reporting entities from 31 March 2026, including a new structure for programs (the reformed tipping-off offence started earlier, on 31 March 2025); and it brings virtual asset service providers fully within the regime. It responds to years of FATF criticism that Australia had left lawyers, accountants and real estate out of its laws.

Penalties

• Civil penalties: up to 100,000 penalty units for a body corporate and 20,000 for an individual per contravention. At the current value of a penalty unit that is in the tens of millions of dollars for a company.
• Enforceable undertakings, remedial directions and infringement notices for lesser breaches.
• Criminal offences for tipping off and for certain deliberate failures.
• Enforcement to date has targeted large institutions: Commonwealth Bank (AU$700 million, 2018), Westpac (AU$1.3 billion, 2020), Crown Resorts (AU$450 million, 2023) and SkyCity (AU$67 million, 2024).

Where to read the primary sources

The Act and the Rules are on the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au). AUSTRAC publishes guidance, including sector-specific guides for each Tranche 2 profession, on austrac.gov.au. When this guide and the primary source differ, the primary source wins.