Page 1683 - Week 06 - Thursday, 23 July 2020
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MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong) (5.33): The ACT Greens support the amendment bill before us today, which will introduce local unexplained wealth laws in order to more effectively deter and disrupt serious criminal activity, including organised crime, and to ensure that those involved in such crime do not profit from their illegal activities.
As the explanatory statement outlines, section 3 of the Confiscation of Criminal Assets Act 2003 sets out the purposes of the act, which include to encourage law-abiding behaviour by the community; to give effect to the principle of public policy that a person should not be enriched because of the commission of an offence, whether or not anyone has been convicted of the offence; to deprive a person of all material advantage derived from the commission of an offence, whatever the form into which property or benefits derived from the offence may have been changed; to deprive a person of property used, or intended by an offender to be used, in relation to the commission of an offence, whatever the form into which it may have been changed, and to prevent the person from using the property to commit other offences; and to enable the effective tracing and seizure by law enforcement authorities of property used, or intended by an offender to be used, in relation to the commission of an offence and all material advantage derived from the offence. Complementing these purposes, the bill before us today adds the following additional purpose in section 3, which is to deprive a person of any unexplained wealth derived from serious criminal activity.
More practically, in application the bill provides for two types of orders which can be sought in relation to unexplained wealth: an unexplained wealth restraining order and an unexplained wealth order. This is clearly a bill designed to further increase community safety by enhancing the court’s ability to consider a defendant’s source of wealth and to ultimately lay charges and seize property. It has been considered as part of the government’s ongoing commitment to reducing crime—in particular, organised crime—and the ACT Greens support these efforts wholeheartedly. So we are pleased to support the bill today. Thank you very much.
MR RAMSAY (Ginninderra—Attorney-General, Minister for the Arts, Creative Industries and Cultural Events, Minister for Building Quality Improvement, Minister for Business and Regulatory Services and Minister for Seniors and Veterans) (5.35), in reply: The Confiscation of Criminal Assets (Unexplained Wealth) Amendment Bill creates an unexplained wealth scheme for the territory. The bill continues this government’s determined work to effectively target and disrupt serious and organised crime in the ACT—work that is based on evidence, not based on emotion and not based on opportunism. Unexplained wealth laws strike at the very heart of serious criminal offending through the seizure, restraint and forfeiture of assets of those who cannot prove that their wealth was acquired lawfully.
Because we know that organised crime is a business model, albeit an illegal one, we need to starve those who choose to partake of the funds that they earn in this illegal activity. We want to make sure that this is a business model that is not profitable. Unexplained wealth laws are unique in their ability to target those who are directing and masterminding serious criminal activity at arm’s length. The bill creates an ACT
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