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Open for consultation: Draft Asbestos-Cement (AC) Water and Sewer Pipe Management Guidelines
09/07/2020
In 2018, the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency released a report Case studies of asbestos water pipe management practices. The report examined six cases of rehabilitating water and sewer pipes containing asbestos in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia and identified best practice for safe and effective management and removal.
The report recommended that a clear, nationally consistent approach to managing asbestos cement water pipes is needed for cost-effectively managing approximately 40,000 km of water mains pipes and 5,000 km of sewer pipes containing asbestos cement across Australia.
In response to that recommendation, the Agency developed the draft Asbestos-Cement (AC) Water and Sewer Pipe Management Guidelines, in collaboration with a working group representing industry, union and government officials. The draft Guidelines have now been released for public consultation. The Guidelines provide information on asbestos cement water and sewer pipe removal and remediation methods, and the issues that water agencies should consider in deciding how to safely manage AC water and sewer pipes.
Submissions are invited from the public, industry and government and must be submitted by 5pm on Friday 7 August 2020. Details on how to make a submission are included with the Guidelines.
Your feedback will help ensure the final version is useful and supports safe practices when managing and removing asbestos cement water pipes. Any queries about the public consultation can be sent to the Agency via email to engage@asbestossafety.gov.au
Report: Money Laundering and the Illegal Wildlife Trade
07/07/2020
25 June 2020 – The illegal wildlife trade is a major transnational organised crime, which generates billions of criminal proceeds each year. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has conducted a new study to provide guidance to countries on measures they can take to combat money laundering from the illegal wildlife trade.
Wildlife traffickers exploit weaknesses in the financial and non-financial sectors, to move, hide and launder their proceeds, enabling further wildlife crimes and damaging financial integrity. One of the most effective ways to identify the broader criminal networks and take the profit out of this crime, is to follow the financial trails of wildlife traffickers.
Despite the significant criminal gains involved, countries and private sector are not prioritising efforts to trace and combat financial flows from this trade in line with risk.
To combat the financial flows from the illegal wildlife trade, countries should therefore as a priority:
- Identify and assess their money laundering risks relating to the illegal wildlife trade.
- Ensure that national laws and powers for law enforcement allow authorities to go after the finances of wildlife traffickers, and to pursue financial investigations.
The private sector also has an important role to play in combatting financial flows from illegal wildlife trade. This study therefore identifies good practices and risk indicators to assist private sector and countries to identify potential suspicious financial activity for the illegal wildlife trade.
This is the FATF's first global report on this topic. It draws on inputs and case studies from over 50 countries from across the FATF Global Network and observers, as well as civil society and the United for Wildlife Financial Taskforce.
