For journalists
AUSTRAC is an Australian Government agency that helps detect and prevent money laundering, terrorism financing and other serious crime. We are both an intelligence agency and a regulator.
Read an overview of AUSTRAC’s role and work.
Contact the AUSTRAC media team
The first point of contact for media enquiries about AUSTRAC is the Media and Communications team. We operate during business hours and will try to respond to you as quickly as possible.
- Email: media@austrac.gov.au: please include your contact details, the outlet you represent, details about your request and the deadline for your story.
- Phone: (02) 9950 0488
- Follow us on Twitter
Media releases and speeches
Search our recent media releases and speeches. Archived media releases can be found on the Trove website, maintained by the National Library of Australia.
Limits on information sharing
We do all we can to be open and transparent, however there are matters we can’t comment on. These include:
- individual intelligence or operational matters
- whether an individual or reporting entity is the subject of any investigation by AUSTRAC or our partner agencies.
Unauthorised disclosure of official information may put law enforcement operations at risk.
AUSTRAC employees may be prevented from disclosing information by laws including:
- part 11 of the AML/CTF Act which contains the secrecy provisions relating to AUSTRAC information
- section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914 which makes it an offence for a Commonwealth officer to publish or communicate any fact, or document which comes into their knowledge or possession, and which it is his or her duty not to disclose.
Subscribe to media releases
To receive alerts when we publish new media releases, subscribe to our RSS feed.
You need to use an RSS reader to subscribe to the RSS feed. See Subscribing to media release alerts for more information.
This guidance sets out how we interpret the Act, along with associated Rules and regulations. Australian courts are ultimately responsible for interpreting these laws and determining if any provisions of these laws are contravened.
The examples and scenarios in this guidance are meant to help explain our interpretation of these laws. They’re not exhaustive or meant to cover every possible scenario.
This guidance provides general information and isn't a substitute for legal advice. This guidance avoids legal language wherever possible and it might include generalisations about the application of the law. Some provisions of the law referred to have exceptions or important qualifications. In most cases your particular circumstances must be taken into account when determining how the law applies to you.