Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition is committed to doing whatever we can to combat terrorism and organised transnational crime. Recent events across the world have highlighted that it is not difficult to conduct an attack and that the time frame between planning and execution is shrinking. In this environment the ability to share information quickly between those who need it is critical to prevent the loss of innocent lives.

I welcome the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Proceeds of Crime and Other Measures) Bill 2015, which will amend Australia's anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism-financing regime to enable financial intelligence to be shared with key international bodies, including INTERPOL and Europol. Specifically, the financial intelligence information obtained by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre—AUSTRAC—plays a central role in identifying and preventing terrorist and criminal activity. By enabling information to be shared faster and more easily, these amendments will maximise intelligence value and assist regional and international partner agencies in the early identification, targeting and disruption of terrorism and transnational crimes, where time is often of the essence.

The Australian Crime Commission recently said that as counter-terrorism efforts throughout Australia are enhanced, linkages between terrorism and broader organised crime are being identified. These linkages include, but are not limited to, Australians who finance terrorist activities, Australians who leave Australia to support terrorist causes and who may return to Australia with the intent of inflicting harm on the Australian community or Australians who may be recruited by organised crime groups seeking the specialist skill sets they have developed in foreign conflicts.

In the current Australian environment, serious and organised crime is exploiting three specific key capabilities. Firstly is organised crime's ability to conceal criminal activity by integrating into legitimate markets; secondly are their increasing technology and online capabilities; and thirdly, there is the globalisation of organised crime.

Serious and organised crime has become interwoven with our economic, social and political environments. Although organised crime has continued to operate in traditional illicit markets, such as illicit drug markets, it has been innovative in infiltrating legitimate industries to yield and launder significant criminal profits, including by setting up businesses within the transport, resources and investment sectors.

Serious and organised criminals have proven themselves adept at identifying and exploiting new and emerging technologies to facilitate their crime, to expand their reach and to provide them with the anonymity and distance from their crime which makes it difficult for law enforcement to detect and identify them.

Transnational organised crime groups have capitalised on the high level of demand in Australia for methylamphetamines, particularly for crystal methylamphetamine—better known as 'ice'. And while significant production is still occurring domestically, there has been a sharp increase in detections of methylamphetamine at the Australian border recently.

Our approach to criminal surveillance, monitoring and dealing with criminal activity should be strong, agile, creative and innovative, capable of quickly recognising and then adapting to and disrupting increasingly sophisticated criminal networks. We must better address law enforcement issues and national security risks through improved information sharing and we must continually improve the efficiency and effectiveness of various laws relating to the administration of criminal justice.

Serious and organised crime diverts funds out of the legitimate economy and undermines the profitability of lawful business. Serious and organised crime removes large amounts of money from the Australian economy that could be otherwise used to fund services, roads, hospitals and schools. This money is instead lining the pockets of criminals. This bill will enhance the ability of Commonwealth agencies to investigate and prosecute criminal offences and ensure that Australian law enforcement agencies can effectively target and confiscate proceeds of crime.

The government is committed to using the dirty money from proceeds of crime and unexplained wealth proceedings to fund strategies to tackle organised crime and the illicit drug trade. The Proceeds of Crime Act provides for a scheme to trace, restrain and confiscate the proceeds of crime against Australian law. The act can also be used in some circumstances to confiscate the proceeds of crime against Australian law in conjunction with a foreign jurisdiction under their laws.

The Australian Federal Police are responsible for investigating whether the Proceeds of Crime Act can 'capture' a person's profits and then determine whether to commence a literary proceeds action. In layman's terms this is an action to recover the benefit that a person derives from the commercial exploitation of others. These proceeds can then be returned to the Australian community to fund anticrime initiatives.

Labor deposited proceeds-of-crime money in the Confiscated Assets Account and used these funds to boost their budget bottom line instead of boosting crime-fighting capacity at the frontline. At the last election, the coalition said that proceeds of crime would be directed into crime prevention and related work. And we are doing what we said we would. We are delivering on our commitment to the Australian people.

In Brisbane, for example, from round 1 of the Safer Streets program, $780,000 from the proceeds of crime has been redirected into the Brisbane Safer Streets project, to implement safety enhancements for crime hot spots so as to reduce antisocial behaviour and improve community safety. About $890,000 in proceeds of crime money has gone into upgrading closed circuit television capabilities at some of our busy airports by providing wide-angle surveillance and digital videorecording capabilities, including Brisbane, Gold Coast and Cairns international airports. More than $650,000 has been used to help OzCare provide a non-residential, integrated drug rehabilitation service in Brisbane, and about $150,000 has gone into supporting Brisbane City Council's Walls and Colours project, which targets some of the most frequently and severely hit graffiti hotspots.

Criminal profits confiscated and held by the government in the proceeds of crime account will also be directed into fighting ice, including $9.8 million over two years to establish a new National Criminal Intelligence System that will redevelop Australia's criminal intelligence systems and database infrastructure to strengthen information and intelligence sharing across law enforcement agencies and jurisdictions; $5 million over four years to deploy transnational crime analysts to organised crime and drug importation hotspots including the United States, Canada, Dubai and Hong Kong; and $3.4 million over two years to boost the Australian Crime Commission's capability to target money laundering activities and undermine the business models of transnational criminal syndicates that are profiting from the misery caused by the illegal ice trade.

The coalition is delivering on our commitment—working hard to keep Australians safe and secure in increasingly uncertain times and using the proceeds of crime to support our fight. I congratulate and thank the minister for bringing this bill forward, and I commend the bill to the House.

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