Submission to Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Inquiry
Late last year we made a submission to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019 Inquiry. We detailed several cases where legal prostitution businesses in Australia and abroad have been found to be engaging in criminal activity including human trafficking. We also described international experience showing that legalisation of prostitution typically gives rise to human trafficking activity.
We stated our strong support of prevention and prosecution of Live Distant Child Abuse, pointing to the grave harms children suffer as the result of these crimes. We highlighted the need for financial institutions to stop facilitating pay-per-view child abuse, and called for heftier financial penalties to enforce this.
We made four recommendations addressing sexual exploitation as a predicate crime in relation to money laundering. We argued also that where sexual exploitation is legalised, criminal activity such as human trafficking, violence, and money laundering intensifies.
We recommended:
- That the sex industry be included in any regulatory mechanisms intended to address money laundering.
- That Live Distant Child Abuse be targeted through strengthening anti-money laundering strategies.
- That cryptocurrencies be addressed in anti-money laundering strategies.
- That international best practice in prostitution legislation could assist in combating money laundering.
Read the full submission here.
*You will note a section of our appendix at page 5 has been redacted. We are seeking to find out why.
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It was a comment about my book, Getting Real: Challenging the sexualisation of girls, which sparked the birth of Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation.
A contributor, Melbourne writer and blogger Tania Andrusiak (author of Adproofing Your Kids: Raising critical thinkers in a media-saturated world ) described the book as “a collective shout against the pornification of culture”. Those words leapt out at me. I liked the phrase so much, I thought it perfect for a new grassroots campaign movement which had been brewing in my mind and in the minds of some of my friends and fellow activists.