David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

This legislation is well overdue. This legislation I fully support. It is here because the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement made recommendations that are embodied in the legislation back in 2012 after considering the implications for over a year. Not only are we committed to building a safe, secure Australia and economy; we are committed to effective law enforcement. This bit of legislation improves the administration of investigating unexplained wealth. This legislation will dovetail with the Proceeds of Crime legislation to facilitating the proceeds of crime being put to good community use.

Mr Deputy Speaker, as you are no doubt aware, the Proceeds of Crime legislation has funded a lot of crime preventing and crime tackling programs such as our closed circuit TV initiative which has been rolled out across a lot of electorates around the country. In my electorate of Lyne the Taree Rotary group got together of their own volition, before our policy was announced, and identified closed circuit TV as a way of identifying local crime in the CBD as well as recording crime for subsequent use in prosecutions. CCTV has been very successful in reducing crime in a lot of areas around the country—in violent hotspots in the after-hours period around alcohol venues. This legislation will help the Commonwealth to capture more proceeds of crime.

Recently in Taree there was property damage in the car park area adjacent to the main road through the CBD. A lot of wheelie bins were put up against a property and set fire to. A lot of goods inside the property were damaged and the structure of the building was put at risk. In the same area, there was a run of cars that had all their tyres slashed by vandals. If there had been CCTV there already, the police could have gone to the digital recording to see who it was. So this will not only prevent crime in these areas; it will help the police prosecute and capture the villains of violent crime, property crime, vandalism and similar things. At the other end of my electorate, unfortunately and with great shock, we woke a few mornings ago to violent crime in the main street of Port Macquarie. There was a fatal stabbing at about 2am outside one of the newsagents just down from a late-night entertainment quarter. I reflected on how helpful CCTV would have been in a crime situation like that.

Returning to this legislation, the amendments to the crimes legislation will facilitate the capture of the proceeds of crime, because much of it manifests as unexplained wealth out of the blue. And it is not a trivial amount of money. Organised crime in this country has billions of dollars running through it. Major crime, drug crime, money laundering—all these sorts of issues will be much more easily captured and effective litigation will ensue as a result of these amendments through, for example, streamlining the affidavit process or prolonging the orders of explanation so that the actual litigation can occur. Another example is allowing search warrants to seize the evidence to prove that the proceeds of crime are unexplained. It prevents people, who receive an order to come and make an explanation of their unexplained wealth, getting out of it by simply not turning up. They seem like simple, commonsense responses to a legal situation that has arisen. I support them, because it will make the work of our law courts and the AFP and the Australian Crime Commission much more effective. I cannot see why anyone would have a concern about the welfare of the victims of organised crime and money laundering from major enterprises through to local and regional crime syndicates.

Another benefit of some of these amendments is that the information can be shared so that the legal institutions and the enforcement bodies, such as the AFP and state police, can share information. It is another practical initiative that should facilitate effective prosecution. The fact that it has taken all this time to get this legislation is an indictment on the previous government. As I have mentioned, we do want to build a safe and secure society for Australia. You only have to look at what has been happening lately to know that our law enforcement bodies are doing a great job. Anything that this House can do to make their job more effective, I fully support. Closed circuit TV would be a great initiative and I am looking forward to it being rolled out in the city of Taree. I have been approached by businessmen in other commercial centres like Port Macquarie, even before this most shocking crime occurred, to have it. I think it is a great initiative and I would like to support it in other areas. If these amendments result in much more effective prosecution, I fully support the legislation. I commend this bill to the House.

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