Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Unexplained Wealth and Other Measures) Bill 2014. As a number of speakers in the House have already mentioned, unexplained wealth generally results from financial crimes and misappropriation of monies in a variety of manners. In its facts sheet, the Australian Crime Commission lists some of these. They include tax evasion; embezzlement; various ranges of fraud, including securities fraud, bank fraud and identity fraud; insider trading; illicit drug trafficking; organised theft and cybercrime.

The Australian Crime Commission conservatively estimates that serious and organised crime costs Australia $15 billion every year. This cost comprises loss of business and taxation revenues, expenditure on law enforcement and regulatory efforts, and the social and community impacts of crime. This bill is directly aimed at seeking to curtail the activities of those who are seeking to undertake criminal activity. At the end of the day, if you remove the financial incentives or you remove the access to finances, those criminal enterprises will dissipate.

This bill seeks to implement the recommendations made by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement in the final report of its inquiry into Commonwealth unexplained wealth legislation and associated arrangements. Criminals who live off the benefits of their illegal activities at the expense of hardworking Australians will be required to comply with additional strengthening mechanisms implemented by this bill. The effect will be to make it tougher for senior organised crime kingpins to conduct their illegal business in our country. More often than not, they are the ones who enjoy those proceeds but they are not the ones directly committing the crimes.

In 2011-12, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement conducted an inquiry into the Commonwealth's unexplained wealth legislation and associated arrangements. Its final report was handed down in March 2012. The inquiry examined the effectiveness of Commonwealth laws and took evidence from the Attorney-General's Department, the Australian Crime Commission, the Australian Federal Police, the ATO and a number of other government and non-government organisations. The inquiry found that unexplained wealth provisions had not been operating as intended. As a result, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement made 18 recommendations for improvement. These recommendations were aimed at improving the investigation and litigation of Commonwealth unexplained wealth matters. Recommendations 1, 5 and 8 through 13 were for specific amendments to the act; recommendations 2, 3 and 4 concerned the Australian Crime Commission's potential role in supporting unexplained wealth proceedings; and recommendations 6 and 7 related to improving information sharing between law enforcement agencies and the ATO. The remaining recommendations, 14 to 18, related to the development of a national unexplained wealth scheme and international agreements relating to unexplained wealth.

This bill will implement eight of those recommendations aimed at strengthening the Commonwealth's unexplained wealth legislation and arrangements. The bill amends the Proceeds of Crime Act to strengthen the unexplained wealth regime. Schedule 1 of the bill contains amendments to the Proceeds of Crime Act that will implement the committee's recommendations to include a statement in the objects clause about undermining the profitability of criminal enterprises. Turning off the financial tap, as I said earlier, is one of the most effective ways to shut down criminal organisations. Schedule 1 also contains amendments to the Proceeds of Crimes Act to ensure evidence relevant to unexplained wealth proceedings can be seized under a search warrant, which was recommendation 5 of the committee's report; streamline affidavit requirements for preliminary unexplained wealth orders, which was recommendation 8; allow the time limit for serving notice of applications for certain unexplained wealth orders to be extended by a court in appropriate circumstances; harmonise legal expense and legal aid provisions for unexplained wealth cases with those for other Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings so as to prevent restrained assets being used to meet legal expenses; allow charges to be created over restrained property to secure payment of an unexplained wealth order, as can occur with other types of proceeds of crime orders; remove a court's discretion to make unexplained wealth restraining orders, preliminary unexplained wealth orders and unexplained wealth orders once relevant criteria are satisfied; require the AFP Commissioner to provide a report to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement annually on unexplained wealth matters and litigation; and empower the committee to seek further information from federal agencies in relation to such a report. On that matter, as chair of that particular committee, I will say that our law enforcement agencies—in particular the AFP and the ACC—do a wonderful job in this area. They are also very forthcoming and ready to discuss any issues we put before them.

Schedule 1 of the bill also contains amendments to the Proceeds of Crime Act that do not relate to specific recommendations of the parliamentary joint committee's report but have been identified as necessary to support the amendments outlined earlier and to address inefficiencies in the act. The first is to clarify that unexplained wealth orders may be made where a person who is subject to the order fails to appear at an unexplained wealth proceeding. The purpose of this amendment, which will give effect to the original intent of the unexplained wealth scheme in the Proceeds of Crime Act, is to ensure that persons cannot frustrate unexplained wealth proceedings by simply failing to appear when required to do so. Another amendment will ensure that provisions in the Proceeds of Crime Act that determine when restraining orders cease to have effect take account of, firstly, the new provisions allowing charges to be created and registered over restrained property to secure the payment of unexplained wealth amounts and, secondly, the fact that unexplained wealth restraining orders may sometimes be made after an unexplained wealth order—not only before.

Also, consequential amendments are proposed to ensure that provisions allowing a court to order costs in certain situations where a restraining order has ceased take these amendments into account. We are also seeking to further streamline the making of preliminary unexplained wealth orders where an unexplained wealth restraining order is in place or has been revoked under section 44 of the Proceeds of Crime Act. We are also seeking to remove redundant and unnecessary affidavit requirements in support of applications for preliminary unexplained wealth orders and, in light of changes to the affidavit requirements for preliminary unexplained wealth orders as outlined above, to ensure that a copy of the affidavit relied upon when a preliminary unexplained wealth order was made is provided to the person who is subject to the order.

In addition, schedule 1 of the bill will amend section 266A of the Proceeds of Crime Act to extend the purposes for which information can be obtained under the coercive powers of the Proceeds of Crime Act and can be shared with state, territory or foreign authorities to include a proceeds of crime purpose. I think this is particularly important, given the transnational nature of much criminal activity in today's world, particularly in relation to terrorist financing, which the member for Hughes touched on earlier. The purpose of these amendments is to enhance information sharing across appropriate state, territory and foreign authorities. Proceeds of crime investigation and litigation increasingly involves transnational elements, due to the international nature of serious and organised crime. To effectively pursue the proceeds of crime offshore and to assist our foreign counterparts in doing so, it is essential that the AFP has the ability to share information for such purposes.

Schedule 2 of the bill corrects some minor drafting errors in the Proceeds of Crime Act that were identified during the drafting of the bill. The amendments made by the bill will ensure that the government has strong laws to target the substantial profits made by serious and organised crime. These bills deliver on our commitments made during the election where we said we would strengthen unexplained wealth legislation to strike at the heart of organised crime by taking away the profits and assets of criminal syndicates and thereby undermine their business model. We said we would ensure the Australian Crime Commission and other relevant law enforcement agencies would have appropriate powers to investigate unexplained wealth.

We also pledged that the coalition would immediately move to implement the recommendations in the parliamentary joint committee's report. I thank those opposite for their comments indicating they are in full support, and I note the work that was done in relation to this in the last parliament. I also note that the Police Federation of Australia and the Australian Federal Police Association, in their joint submission to the Australian Crime Commission, and Australian Customs and Border Protection Service were supportive of the unexplained wealth amendments in the 2012 bill. As I have said, we are honouring another election commitment where we promised to strengthen these laws and deliver a safer, more secure Australia for everybody in our community.

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