Criminal Assets Confiscation (Prescribed Drug Offenders) Amendment Bill

Final Stages

The Legislative Council agreed to the bill with the amendments indicated by the following schedule, to which amendments the Legislative Council desires the concurrence of the House of Assembly:

No. 1. Clause 20—Delete the clause

No. 2. Clause 21, page 9, lines 29 to 31—Delete clause 21 and substitute:

21—Amendment of section 209—Credits to the Victims of Crime Fund

(1) Section 209(1)—after 'Subject to' insert 'subsection (1a) and'

(2) Section 209—after subsection (1) insert:

(1a) The Attorney-General must ensure that in each financial year an amount equal to 50% of the proceeds of confiscated assets of prescribed drug offenders for the preceding financial year is, instead of being paid into the Victims of Crime Fund under subsection (1), applied as additional government funding for drug rehabilitation programs (and such money may be applied without further appropriation than this subsection).

No. 3. Clause 22—Delete the clause

No. 4. New clauses, page 11, after line 4—After clause 23 insert:

24—Amendment of section 226—Appeals

Section 226—after subsection (3) insert:

(3a) On an appeal under this section the court may discharge or vary the order if satisfied that it is in the interests of justice to do so (and may do so regardless of whether this Act authorised or required the order to be made).

25—Insertion of sections 229A and 229B

After section 229 insert:

229A—Confiscation guidelines relating to prescribed drug offenders

Property may not be the subject of an application under this Act on the basis that the property is owned by or subject to the effective control of—

(a) a prescribed drug offender; or

(b) a person who has been charged with, or is suspected on reasonable grounds of having committed, an offence that will, if he or she is convicted of the offence, result in him or her becoming a prescribed drug offender,

unless the DPP has published in the Gazette guidelines setting out policies applied by the DPP in relation to the making of such applications.

229B—Annual report relating to prescribed drug offenders

(1) The Attorney-General must, on or before 30 September in each year, lay before both Houses of Parliament a report on the operation of the amendments enacted by the Criminal Assets Confiscation (Prescribed Drug Offenders) Amendment Act 2015 during the financial year ending on the preceding 30 June.

(2) A report under this section must include the following information for the financial year to which the report relates:

(a) the number of restraining orders and forfeiture orders made in relation to property owned by, or subject to the effective control of—

(i) prescribed drug offenders; and

(ii) persons who have been charged with, or are suspected on reasonable grounds of having committed, an offence that will, if the person is convicted of the offence, result in him or her becoming a prescribed drug offender;

(b) details of property forfeited under this Act that was, immediately before such forfeiture, owned by, or subject to the effective control of, a prescribed drug offender.

(3) A report required under this section may be incorporated into any other report required to be laid before both Houses of Parliament by the Attorney-General.

26—Review of Act

(1) The Attorney-General must, within 3 years after the commencement of this Act, undertake a review of the amendments to the Criminal Assets Confiscation Act 2005 enacted by this Act.

(2) The Attorney-General must cause a report on the outcome of the review to be tabled in both Houses of Parliament within 12 sitting days after its completion.