Draft AML/CTF Legal Professional Privilege Guidelines 2026
Submission Date: 30 June 2026
The Law Council of Australia provided a submission to the Department of Home Affairs regarding its draft Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Legal Professional Privilege Guidelines 2026 (Draft Guidelines).
This submission first provides preliminary comments relevant to the Draft Guidelines, before discussing our most critical concerns with the guidelines that we think warrant particular attention. The submission then outlines some additional concerns with certain aspects of the Draft Guidelines, and some minor technical recommendations.
For ease of reference, in this submission the Law Council refers to:
- the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) and the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Act 2024 (Cth) as the AML/CTF Act;
- the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing legislative regime as the Regime;
- to the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre as AUSTRAC; and
- to the Department of Home Affairs as the Department.
It is the Law Council’s preference to use the term ‘client legal privilege’ (CLP) rather than ‘legal professional privilege’ (LPP) when discussing this species of privilege. The Law Council emphasises that the privilege belongs to the client, not the legal practitioner and, by extension, that privileged communications may only be disclosed by a practitioner in very limited circumstances. Accordingly, in this submission the Law Council uses the term CLP in place of the term LPP.
Last Updated on 01/07/2026
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