Australia’s Autonomous Sanctions Regulations are set to expire in October 2027. The Australian government is taking this opportunity to revisit its autonomous sanctions framework. It proposes to adopt a new Autonomous Sanctions Act that will incorporate, and substantially revise, provisions currently spread across the Act and Regulations.
The proposed reforms are substantive but, in some respects, require significant further improvement:
- Many will be disappointed at the absence of civil enforcement powers for the Australian Sanctions Office, especially in view of the near-complete lack of sanctions enforcement in Australia.
- The Bill introduces two similar but distinct concepts, ‘effective control’ and ‘control’, which apply to different sanctions prohibitions. The former is defined in detail; the latter is left undefined. This is bound to result in confusion and, in the worst case scenarios, misapplication of the law.
- The Bill goes too far in ruling out sanctions against both Australian citizens and permanent residents, in all circumstances.
Earlier this month, the government consulted on the proposed changes. I put in a submission alongside the Australian National University PhD candidate Darina Herden, Tom Keatinge of RUSI’s Centre for Finance and Security, Sydney University law professor Saskia Hufnagel and Charles Sturt University’s Dr Jamie Ferrill – all of us being involved in an ongoing three-year study of financial sanctions implementation in Australia.
Our submission is enclosed here, and may be of interest to those who would like to know what the implications of the proposed changes are, noting they are not yet final.
