Scrutiny of Australia’s sanctions framework continues: Multiple Parliamentary reviews explore recommendations for ongoing reform

Scrutiny of Australia’s sanctions framework continues, with multiple Parliamentary Committee reviews exploring recommendations for ongoing reform in recent reports released by:

1. the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Reference Committee on 11 February 2025; and
2. the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade on 7 March 2025.

Senate Committee review of Australian sanctions regime: Report released with recommendations for broader engagement and international cooperation to strengthen sanctions effectiveness

Background to the review

On 3 July 2024, the Senate referred an inquiry into Australia’s sanctions regime to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Reference Committee (the Senate Committee) for inquiry and report, calling for submissions by 6 September 2024.

The terms of reference for the inquiry were to consider Australia’s sanctions regime, with particular reference to:

1. an assessment of the consistency in application of Australia’s sanctions regime and in coordination with key partners and allies, including the identification of any gaps and time lags in their application;
2. consideration of the evidence on how sanctions regimes are targeting and addressing behaviour of designated individuals and entities;
3. consideration of specific measures to coordinate, collaborate, and harmonise sanctions with partners and allies, and multilaterally, including how different interests can be taken into account;
4. consideration of mechanisms to freeze and confiscate assets belonging to sanctioned persons/entities and how the proceeds can be used to benefit peoples and countries impacted by the behaviour of sanctioned individuals and entities;
5. consideration of opportunities for engagement by the Australian community, civil society, financial institutions and other organisations in Australia’s sanctions regime;
6. consideration of methods to assess the effectiveness of sanctions decisions and/or the extent to which sanctions are having the intended impact, and recommend any improvements;
7. consideration of how Australia’s sanctions regime could better align with Australia’s existing anti-corruption and crime measures, including to better target Australians involved in designated actions;
8. consideration of the role of sanctions in an increasingly complex global context, where geo-strategic competition is re-shaping our region; and
9. any other matters that are relevant to the effectiveness of Australia’s sanctions framework.

The Senate Committee received 45 submissions from a broad range of stakeholders and held a public hearing in Canberra on 15 November 2025. The key themes arising from those submissions related to:

• underutilisation of Australian sanctions and misalignment with Australia’s allies;
• the importance of international coordination, including increasing the mutual recognition of international assessments, intelligence and decisions on sanctions without impacting Australian sovereignty and independence;
• enhancing sanctions enforcement, including consideration of the introduction of a power to freeze and seize assets and redistribute them for the benefit of the affected community; and
• engagement with civil society and the private sector, who are seeking greater transparency on the process for sanctions decision-making.

For further information on the Senate Committee’s review, see the inquiry webpage here.

Key findings and recommendations by the Senate Committee

On 11 February 2025, the Senate Committee published its report.

The report noted that “Australia has developed a robust sanctions regime framework allowing manoeuvrability in response to issues of global concern” which, when wielded effectively, “can be a powerful tool for promoting accountability…and can influence behaviour by publicly naming human rights abusers and raising the financial and reputational costs of violating international norms”.

However, the Senate Committee acknowledged that, in practice, the implementation of sanctions is complicated and their resulting effectiveness is difficult to measure.

The Senate Committee found that implementation of Australia’s existing sanctions regime could be improved in several ways to respond to emerging challenges. It made eight recommendations aimed at addressing three key concerns: inconsistencies in sanctions application, underutilisation of thematic sanctions, and delays in applying sanctions already applied by partner states.

Specifically, those recommendations were: 

1. the Australian Government consider its application of thematic sanctions and explore ways to further strengthen consistency where appropriate.
2. in circumstances where foreign policy objectives allow, the Australian Government, while continuing to make its own judgments concerning the imposition of sanctions, prioritise the alignment of sanctions with allies to maximise effectiveness and place greater emphasis on imposing such sanctions promptly.
3. the Australian Government consider establishing a mechanism for engagement with civil society on Australia’s sanctions regime.
4. the Australian Government work with its global partners to increase focus on sanctions enforcement and close loopholes which allow Iran and Russia to evade the financial impact of Australian sanctions.
5. the Australian Government continue to impose sanctions on Iranian officials involved in serious violations or serious abuses of human rights, including wrongful detention.
6. the Australian Government prioritise, in consultation with international partners and non-governmental Australian stakeholders, the development of methodologies to target and measure the effectiveness of Australia’s sanctions regime.
7. the Australian Government consider how to identify and locate all Russian and Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-associated assets in Australia which are currently subject to sanctions.
8. the Australian Government identify all Russian assets in Australia that are subject to sanctions, and consider what legislative and other changes are required to enable the transfer of these assets.

The Senate Committee’s report, including submissions received, is available here. 

Joint Committee review of Australian Magnitsky-style and other thematic sanctions laws: Report released with recommendations for transparency and consistency

Background to the review

One month after the publication of the above Senate Committee report, on 7 March 2025, the Human Rights Subcommittee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (the Joint Committee) published its report into the operation of amendments made by the Autonomous Sanctions Amendment (Magnitsky-style and Other Thematic Sanctions) Act 2021 (the Amending Act). There were a small number of overlapping committee members who sat on both the Senate Committee and Joint Committee reviews.

In summary, the Amending Act expanded Australia’s existing autonomous sanctions regime to enable Australia to directly sanction individuals and entities for engaging in particular types of thematic conduct, including malicious cyber activity, serious corruption and human rights violations. This expansion aligned Australia with similar ‘Magnitsky’ style regimes that operate in the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and Canada. For further information on this, see our previous update here.

As at the date of the Joint Committee’s report, Australia has imposed sanctions on 19 entities and 109 individuals under Australia’s autonomous thematic sanctions regime.

Despite this, in the Senate Committee’s report published in February 2025 (see above), the Senate Committee noted its concern that “Australia is barely utilising its ability to impose thematic sanctions in circumstances which appear to warrant taking such a step” and observed that there was a “lack of clarity on the reason why sanctions have not been applied” in certain situations.

Under section 4 of the Amending Act, the Joint Committee was required to commence a review of the operation of the amendments made by the Act as soon as possible after 8 December 2024.

On 8 December 2024, the Joint Committee announced its inquiry into the operation of the Amending Act, calling for submissions by 17 January 2025. The Joint Committee received seven submissions from a range of stakeholders and held a public hearing in Canberra on 29 January 2025.

The submissions received by the Joint Committee raised three key areas for legislative and functional change to Australia’s sanctions framework:

• thematic areas, including broadening the themes under which sanctions are imposed, and clarifying the criteria for certain thematic areas;
• the function of Australia’s sanctions regime, including concerns regarding unintended adverse consequences for humanitarian organisations, and a lack of cross-border coordination; and
• consistency and transparency, including calls for greater oversight and clarity around sanctions decision-making.  

For further information on the Joint Committee’s review, see the inquiry webpage here.

Key findings and recommendations by the Joint Committee

The Joint Committee’s report noted that Australia’s thematic sanctions framework “holds real promise in tackling human rights abuses, curbing serious corruption, and addressing other issues of international concern around the world.”

However, the Joint Committee acknowledged there are areas in which the framework can be strengthened and reforms are therefore warranted, particularly to address concerns regarding consistency and transparency in the application of autonomous sanctions.

These comments by the Joint Committee build upon observations of the Senate Committee in its February 2025 report (see above), where the Senate Committee also noted that the underutilisation of thematic sanctions “allows perpetrators of human rights abuses to continue to act with impunity …[and] also has a negative effect on the effectiveness imposed by Australia’s global partners”. As noted above, the Senate Committee therefore recommended that the Government consider its application of thematic sanctions and explore ways to further strengthen consistency where appropriate.

Consistent with this recommendation, the Joint Committee made a further five recommendations aimed at strengthening Australia’s autonomous sanctions framework, including that: 

1. the Australian Government should include detailed reasoning for listing decisions in legislative instruments that impose autonomous sanctions.
2. the Australian Sanctions Office should update and maintain the Consolidated List to include detailed reasoning for each designation.
3. the Minister for Foreign Affairs should report annually to the Parliament on all autonomous sanctions decisions taken during the previous 12 months.
4. the Australian Government should amend Section 6A of the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011 to:
   1. include criteria for the thematic area of ‘threats to international peace and security’; and
   2. include criteria for the thematic area of ‘serious violations of international humanitarian law’, in conformity with the term’s meaning under international law.
5. the Australian Government, in consultation with the humanitarian sector, should amend the Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011 to provide a standing exemption from all sanctions measures for legitimate humanitarian assistance, consistent with the approach taken in United Nations Security Council Resolution 2664 (2022).

The Joint Committee also encouraged the Australian Government to conduct further periodic reviews of its autonomous sanctions laws in order to bolster the effectiveness of the framework.

The Joint Committee’s report, including submissions received, is available here. 

What legislative change might arise following these reviews?

These recommendations from the Senate Committee and Joint Committee add to wider calls for further development of Australia’s sanctions framework.

In particular, in 2023, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) commenced a review into how Australia’s sanctions laws could better support Australian foreign policy objectives. DFAT published a summary of findings from this review in October 2024, which stated that the review outcomes would form the basis of advice to Government on possible areas of sanctions law reform. See HSF’s detailed update on DFAT’s report here.

As at January 2025, DFAT indicated that recommendations for legislative change and other reforms were put to Government and remain under consideration.

It therefore remains to be seen what legislative amendments, if any, will be proposed following these various reviews.