David Van (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition government firmly believe in enforcing the rule of law and holding law-breakers to account. The introduction of the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Economic Disruption) Bill 2020 demonstrates our commitment. This bill is a significant step forward in the Morrison government's fight against transnational, serious and organised crime groups.

As a government we are committed to ensuring that Australians are protected from all crimes, but transnational, serious and organised crime—or TSOC, as it's known—has significant impacts on our communities, our economy and our national security. TSOC groups are systematically affecting the health, wealth and safety of Australian citizens through abhorrent conduct such as illicit drug trafficking, mass fraud and child exploitation. Corruption and money laundering do real harm to people, hold back development and undermine confidence in government and public institutions.

The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Economic Disruption) Bill 2020 deals with the fact that money laundering is an important aspect of serious crime. Money laundering is an important aspect of fraud, terrorism, human trafficking and supporting totalitarian regimes. We must deal with these issues properly. By introducing the new measures in this legislation to tackle money laundering, we are helping to ensure that Australian dollars are not being used to support these criminal organisations.

According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, each year TSOC organisations cost Australia up to $47.4 billion. But when indirect social impacts are considered the true cost is immeasurable. It is estimated that money laundering alone now costs more than US $1 trillion globally. TSOC groups have evolved into sophisticated, multinational businesses that are primarily driven by a profit motive, with no care or concern for the people who their actions are affecting. TSOC groups operate as sophisticated and compartmentalised businesses, generating huge profits from their criminal pursuits.

In order to clean their proceeds of crime and realise these profits, the TSOC business model relies on money laundering. This allows profits to be concealed and reinvested in further criminal activity used to fund lavish lifestyles or to funnel money to terrorism and other nefarious activities. These groups are so sophisticated that they are deliberately structuring their operations to avoid prosecution. They are well financed and are intent on retaining their profits through any means necessary. The Morrison government do not accept that this is good enough. We believe Australia needs a tough regime and that destroying their business model through this bill will create just that.

Under the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Economic Disruption) Bill 2020 we are enhancing key laws to take the profit out of crime, striking at the heart of criminal business models and reducing its impact on everyday Australians. This bill seeks to attack transnational, serious and organised crime groups by targeting the illicit wealth that sustains them. This bill is designed to remove TSOC from our country and our economy, giving honest Australians a fair go. This bill includes an overhaul of the Commonwealth's money-laundering offences in the Criminal Code to address the increasingly complex methods employed by TSOC actors. It will strengthen money-laundering offences by targeting money-laundering networks that deal with illicit property at arm's length, those that remain wilfully blind to its criminal origins and those who actively seek to conceal these origins.

TSOC networks are typically led by controllers who issue directions to others to launder criminal profits while keeping themselves at arm's length to avoid criminal liability. The person who physically deals with the money or property is intentionally kept ignorant of its criminal origins. This bill says, 'Enough is enough.' We are changing the current legislation so that our law enforcement officers can effectively target the controllers at the heart of the operation by treating them as though they deal with the criminal money or property themselves, and they are punished accordingly.

The bill also strengthens criminal asset confiscation laws by enhancing information-gathering powers, preventing criminals from buying back property, improving powers to preserve the value of seized property and clarifying key provisions to ensure that illicit overseas property and benefits obtained through the criminal avoidance, deferral or reduction of a loss, duty or liability can be confiscated. This bill also strengthens undercover operations by clarifying that undercover operatives are not bound by the same obligations as identifiable law enforcement officers. This includes the obligations to caution a person who is under arrest or a protected suspect before starting questioning.

Operational experience has demonstrated a willingness by suspects to obstruct the information-gathering process. This means that the offences for noncompliance are currently impractical to enforce. This bill also seeks to enhance the ability of law enforcement to enforce compliance with the information-gathering powers in the Proceeds of Crime Act. These powers provide law enforcement with valuable information about an individual's property and its potential links to crime.

Make no mistake: if you are engaged in transnational, serious or organised crime, the Morrison government is coming for you. We will catch you. We will arrest you and try you in court. We will disrupt your network and we will confiscate your property. The Australian public are sick and tired of organised crime gangs thinking they can come into our country and run amok. Every TSOC organisation working in Australia is having a negative effect on the health, wealth and safety of Australian citizens. With this bill, the Morrison government says, 'Enough is enough.' I'll say it again: enough is enough. As a government we are proud of our tough stance on crime, and these amendments to the crime legislation will make it harder for offenders to evade the reach of our law enforcement.

I want to conclude by saying that I'm grateful for the work of all members of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, chaired by my good friend and colleague Senator Stoker, for their work in reviewing this legislation. It is a very technical piece of legislation, but it is vitally important for protecting Australians. Finally, I say thank you very much to the wonderful men and women who work in law enforcement. Their contribution to our national security does not go unnoticed by those of us in this place.