Austrac uses Palantir’s Gotham and Foundry platforms. The agency has confirmed it, there is at least a $12 million contract, and Services Australia’s own internal documents name Palantir as the software Austrac relies on to manage its financial data holdings.
Austrac’s NDIS Financial Crime Guide instructs banks to file suspicious matter reports tagged with NDIS keywords. Austrac’s own privacy documentation confirms those reports carry the personal details of NDIS participants. Austrac sits on the Fraud Fusion Taskforce, the body driving the crackdown on NDIS spending that MWM has been reporting on for the past fortnight.
What nobody in government will say is whether NDIS participant data reaches Palantir, or whether it gets there through Austrac’s back door. We put questions to both Austrac and the NDIS. Two days on, neither has answered.
Gotham is the same platform the IDF uses in Gaza. It identifies hidden networks, maps the relationships between people, and tracks money flows and movement over time. Palantir chief executive Alex Karp says his company is proud of the role it plays “especially in places we can’t talk about”.
Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker.
