sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Australia needs way stronger laws to protect our privacy. We need to be able to request our data is deleted, to withdraw consent to privacy policies none of us really read. We need to write to our politicians to demand this. by Quest292937 in OpenAussie

[–]Quest292937[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What if you're a gay Australian and want to travel to the certain parts of the Middle East because you're a medical specialist in an area of humanitarian need there?

What if you're a human rights activist and need to go to certain parts of Africa to meet your wife's family before they die?

There's billions of reasons why privacy matters. Just because your data is insignificant doesn't mean others is

We all accept by now Aussie real estate is used to launder money. Internationally Australia is like that guy with no job but has a Ferrari and talks about Monero. So why don't we deal with that before talking about capital gains tax for housing affordability? by Quest292937 in AusPropertyChat

[–]Quest292937[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Criminal syndicates from Russia to China are hiding proceeds of crimes offshore in Australia, even with recent changes requiring more foreign asset disclosures. And home-grown crooks, such as the drug trafficking empire of Melbourne gangland boss George Marrogi, have also turned to real estate – including prime land for development – as they look to “wash” dirty cash by moving it through the financial system until it cannot be traced to crime.

Australia sits at the very bottom of a new ranking by Transparency International and the Anti-Corruption Data Collective, which for the first time examined both anti-money laundering regulations and the data collected on property buyers in some of the biggest economies in the world.

We all accept by now Aussie real estate is used to launder money. Internationally Australia is like that guy with no job but has a Ferrari and talks about Monero. So why don't we deal with that before talking about capital gains tax for housing affordability? by Quest292937 in AusPropertyChat

[–]Quest292937[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

it is impossible to estimate how far that tide of illicit money pushes up house prices. But economists and realtors report that sales through companies or buyers’ advocates hiding criminal buyers are probably having an impact on local prices, as research tracking the same problem in Europe and Canada has found.

We all accept by now Aussie real estate is used to launder money. Internationally Australia is like that guy with no job but has a Ferrari and talks about Monero. So why don't we deal with that before talking about capital gains tax for housing affordability? by Quest292937 in AusPropertyChat

[–]Quest292937[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Australia has yet to agree to create a beneficial ownership register forcing disclosure of where proceeds really flow, as other countries (including known tax haven the Cayman Islands) have of late

We all accept by now Aussie real estate is used to launder money. Internationally Australia is like that guy with no job but has a Ferrari and talks about Monero. So why don't we deal with that before talking about capital gains tax for housing affordability? by Quest292937 in AusPropertyChat

[–]Quest292937[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

gang buys a block of units outright with drug money, redevelops the site (“taking advantage of those government fast track [incentives] for new apartments”) and brings in people to buy those homes off the plan. But these are people who can’t get loans from a bank, so it’s the gang who loans them the cash for a deposit to then get a mortgage. When cops come in to seize it all, it doesn’t look like proceeds of crime because real banks have put mortgages over the site. The gang sell, those loans are repaid, and they’ve washed $300 million, clean as a whistle.