GOLD CORPORATION — AUSTRAC AUDIT
568. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Minister for Mines and Petroleum:
I refer to the AUSTRAC review into
Perth Mint and suspicions that Gold Corporation has breached federal law, and
to delays in implementing the one-future program, which Gold Corp documents
show left Perth Mint without a clear line of sight for transactions.
(1) When was the minister personally briefed by Gold
Corporation about the risks of falling foul of AUSTRAC and the risk of a protracted delivery of the
one-future program; and, if the minister was not briefed, why not?
(2) How long did Gold Corp operate
with a registration failure regarding remittance advice?
(3) Will the Western Australian
taxpayer be responsible for any fine liability?
Mr W.J.
JOHNSTON replied:
(1)–(3) Again,
I want to point out to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition that he is talking
about two separate questions. The question of the registration was resolved by
Gold Corporation during the caretaker period in March 2021, and ever since that
occurred, that portion of its obligations under the federal legislation has
been complete. I understand that that is not what was reflected in the article
in The West Australian, but I make it clear that from March 2021, Gold
Corporation exercised its obligations in respect of that particular aspect of its registration. That is a separate
question to what AUSTRAC is currently reviewing—that is, whether
any of the counterparties that Gold Corp has dealt with are involved in either
money laundering or other improper conduct. That is not about the registration.
Again, I want to emphasise that. It is exactly what I said yesterday, but I want
to make it clear to the member. He is actually asking about two separate
issues.
In respect of the time line for
dealing with the question of anti-money laundering and counterterrorism
financing—that is the money laundering question—I met with the
Auditor General on 6 May. It was our introductory meeting, if you like, and we
covered issues across Gold Corporation. The Auditor General and I shared a number
of challenges about the way that Gold Corp had been conducting its business up
to that date. On 26 May, OAG staff briefed my staff. On 28 June, as the member
knows because I gave him a copy of the letter yesterday, AUSTRAC formally
declined my request for a briefing about what it was doing in respect of Gold
Corporation. On 13 September, the Auditor General wrote to me to provide a copy
of the management letter for Gold Corporation for that year. I accepted the
Auditor General's offer for a personal briefing. On 23 September, the
Attorney General reissued the management letter following feedback from Gold
Corp. On 14 October 2021, I was briefed by the Auditor General on the OAG's
financial audit of Gold Corp. Ms Spencer, the Auditor General, indicated in
that meeting that issues around the AML/CTF were ''Not going to blow up''
and it was suggested that the CEO of AUSTRAC had acknowledged the Auditor
General's rigorous interrogation of Gold Corporation. On 11 September
this year, the Auditor General wrote to me to provide Gold Corp's
management letter for the 2021–22 financial year.
I want to emphasise that the Auditor
General's responsibility is to make sure that all the entities for
which Parliament is responsible comply with their obligations. That is the
point I tried to make to the member yesterday. Of course, we have been
challenged in this matter. I cannot say to the member that there are not people
who have used Gold Corporation for money laundering. That is why we want—this
is exactly what I said to the member in
estimates—AUSTRAC to review the behaviour of Gold Corporation to make
sure that it is complying with its obligations under AML/CTF rules. If not, we
need to know that because we need to improve.
It is true that when we came to
government, Gold Corporation was a complete shambles. It had no proper computer
system to allow it to manage its customers. That was the purpose of the
computer program. That is what it was intended to do. Yes, the management of
the implementation of that program was suboptimal.
I have never tried to defend the suboptimal performance of the leadership of
Gold Corporation in badly managing the implementation of that program.
But the point I have made to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition previously,
including in estimates this year, is that that computer system has been
implemented and is being used and, as the member was told by Jason Waters in
estimates, it is now performing the duties for which it was created. I accept
that it took us too long to fix the shambles left to us by your side, but the
whole point here is that at every step of the way, when the Premier was the
minister and since I have taken over, we have been trying to get to the bottom
of the chaos that the former Liberal–National government left us. We
appointed a new chair and we are changing out the board over time. There is now
a Treasury official on the board. We have a highly efficient new chief
executive who is determined to get to the bottom of these matters. For the
first time, we are starting to get to the bottom of it, and that is why the
Auditor General told me last week that she thinks that it is a breath of fresh
air having Jason Waters running the organisation. I do not apologise for trying
to clean up the mess that was left to us by you.
The SPEAKER: Just before I take
the supplementary, minister, that was an incredibly comprehensive answer; it
just took a tiny bit too long.