Page 2470 - Week 06 - Thursday, 24 June 2010
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stated that, in order to prevent serious and organised crime, it is critical to reduce or remove the financial motivations. The ACT government agrees with the commonwealth’s assessment.
The financial loss suffered by Australian society as a consequence of organised crime is tremendous. In 2008, the Australian Crime Commission estimated conservatively that the national cost of organised crime was at least $10 billion. These costs include the loss of legitimate business revenue, the loss of taxation revenue, expenditure on law enforcement and regulatory efforts, and managing social harms when criminal activity compromises the health, safety and wellbeing of individuals and communities.
We must strive to ensure that the financial incentives of participating in organised crime are dissolved, as was flagged in the government’s report on serious organised crime tabled last year. The government is working to address this issue and is currently investigating the most appropriate legislative method to confiscate unexplained wealth.
As with the Crimes (Serious Organised Crime) Bill, the government will ensure that any proposal is informed by and compliant with our human rights obligations. The legislation will not be rushed through the Assembly. It will not be rushed in a way that may result in future challenges, as is currently occurring, as I previously observed, in relation to the High Court and anti-association laws in other jurisdictions.
The commonwealth parliament has recently passed a bill to introduce unexplained wealth provisions into commonwealth law. Western Australia and the Northern Territory already have such provisions. The government will assess the unexplained wealth legislation in these jurisdictions in order to aid us in enacting the best model to prevent criminals yielding profit from illegal activities in the territory.
To further honour our commitment to address serious and organised crime, the government is also conducting a review of police powers. The review will determine the efficacy, scope and effect of the current powers and will ascertain whether any amendments are needed to provide for improvements to these powers. Along with this review, the government will be introducing legislation to provide witnesses with further protections, to ensure that those members of our community who oppose criminal activity will be protected as far as possible by the law.
As this debate has demonstrated, the Crimes (Serious Organised Crime) Amendment Bill provides law enforcement agencies with the increased capacity to respond to, and intervene in, serious organised crime. It is an important reform. I appreciate the support of members for it in principle today, and I commend the bill to the Assembly.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Detail stage
Clauses 1 to 8, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
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