The Industry Collective Speaks united accounting, legal, real estate and conveyancing professionals with AUSTRAC ahead of landmark 1 July AML/CTF reforms.
InfoTrack last week convened and hosted The Industry Collective Speaks, Australia’s first virtual forum to unite all four corporate Tranche 2 AML/CTF professions: legal, conveyancing, real estate and accounting. For the first time, these sectors shared a single forum alongside Australia’s financial intelligence regulator, AUSTRAC.
With mandatory AML/CTF obligations commencing on 1 July 2026 for thousands of Australian firms, the forum delivered a defining conversation between regulators, peak industry bodies, and subject matter experts, exploring the realities, tensions and unanswered questions that practitioners are navigating in the lead-up to commencement.
The anecdote that changed the room
In one of the forum’s most striking moments, AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas described how a conveyancing firm, still months before obligations commenced, identified a suspicious transaction and contacted AUSTRAC voluntarily. The information appeared routine. The individual appeared, in Thomas’s words, “the most innocent-looking member of the public that you could ever see.”
The information proved to be the lynchpin in uncovering the Australian fulcrum of multiple major international organised crime groups funnelling tens of millions of dollars into the Australian real estate market.
“That was one conveyancer, with one piece of information, before the regime even started,” Thomas said. “And that’s a great indication of people starting to think about what questions they need to ask, what suspicions to form, and what to do with that.”
No single profession has ever had the complete picture…until now
Every significant financial transaction in Australia passes through the hands of these four professions. Yet until today, every conversation about AML/CTF reform had happened within a single industry, in isolation.
The panel was convened by InfoTrack and drew together some of the most senior voices across all four affected sectors. Brendan Thomas, CEO of AUSTRAC, opened the forum with a direct address on what the risk-based approach demands of Tranche 2 entities. He was joined by Bobbie Wan, Head of Regulatory Policy & Strategy at the NSW Law Society, who explored the tensions between AML obligations and solicitor-client privilege; Jill Muir, Senior Policy Advocate at CA ANZ, on embedding compliance into existing accounting practice management frameworks; Richard Storey, Partner in Risk Consulting at Grant Thornton, who offered a cross-sector view of where implementation gaps remain; Jennie Tonner, President of AICNSW, on conveyancer readiness and the professional value of this new specialisation; and Nicole Unger, General Counsel at REINSW, on the practical scripts, safety concerns and agency agreement protections going live on 1 July.
“InfoTrack exists at the intersection of every profession involved in these reforms,” stated InfoTrack’s Chief Operating Officer, Lee Bailie. “We were uniquely placed to be the key player that brought them all into one room, and uniquely motivated to do it. These industries don’t usually speak to each other. When they do, at a moment like this, the whole ecosystem becomes more resilient.”
Key themes from the forum
Scale of the problem: AUSTRAC confirmed that illicit drug markets generate at least $16 billion annually and illicit tobacco a further $6 billion, more than $22 billion being laundered through the Australian economy each year, with real estate a known and active channel.
Enrolment momentum: As of 17 June 2026, 22,000 businesses had enrolled with AUSTRAC, including more than 9,000 real estate businesses, 5,000 accounting firms, 4,000 legal firms and 1,200 conveyancers, with enrolment numbers accelerating in the final fortnight.
You cannot outsource your legal liability: A major theme of the forum was the misinformation circulating that technology platforms could fulfil AML obligations on behalf of reporting entities.
Both AUSTRAC and industry bodies were unequivocal: the legal responsibility remains with the reporting entity at all times. It was a point InfoTrack has long built into its own approach to compliance tooling and one that resonated strongly with attendees.
Suspicious matter reports: A recurring source of uncertainty across all professions. Thomas clarified that an SMR is a report of suspicion, not a crime report, and that in 20 years of operation not a single reporter has ever been exposed as the source. He also noted that firms filing no SMRs at all are more likely to attract AUSTRAC scrutiny than those filing regularly.
Professional tensions that had never before been aired together: The forum surfaced genuine cross-sector tensions, including the conflict between solicitor-client privilege and suspicious matter obligations, in a forum that allowed regulators and industry bodies to respond in real time. Bobbie Wan of the NSW Law Society noted the profession had developed dedicated AML implementation guidance to navigate these tensions, with model retainer wording and guidance on how to terminate a retainer without tipping off a client. When Amber Sherlock asked the panel what advice they would give practitioners heading into this first phase, Bobbie’s answer was the one that landed: “Don’t let perfection get in the way of progress. Have a go, the support is there, and that is genuinely enough.”
As moderator Amber Sherlock, Journalist and Broadcaster, stated in her closing remarks, “What made this forum significant was not simply that we heard from regulators, industry bodies and experts. For the first time, these conversations happened together, because no single profession sees the complete picture alone. Industries are aligning. Guidance is evolving. And the conversations that happened here will shape how these professions work together long after 1 July.”
An on-demand recording of The Industry Collective Speaks is now available. Practitioners across all four sectors can access the full session here.
