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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-10-17 Daily Xml
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POLICE, UNDERCOVER OPERATIONS

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (14:24): My question is to the Attorney. Can the Attorney enlighten the house in general terms with regard to the type of offences covered in the tabled report entitled, 'Criminal Investigation (Covert Operations) Act 2009', under the category of undercover operations?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:25): I thank the honourable member for his question. The type of offences that are contemplated here are, as the honourable member would be aware from reading the report, first and foremost offences which seem to be relating to the Controlled Substances Act. In other words, we are dealing here with operations that are involved in the apprehension of people involved in the marketing or production of drugs of some description.

It is probably also important for members to understand that what we are talking about here, in effect, is people who are going undercover assuming different identities for the purposes of investigating a matter. Under the provisions of this act they are in a position where even if they perform what would otherwise be an illegal act in the course of that covert operation they are given a degree of immunity.

So, it is a very specific and unusual policing tool, only used, as I understand it, in the most serious of circumstances, hence the relatively small numbers of people involved. I think the honourable member noted there that there might have been 10, for example, in the reporting period which weren't specifically to do with the Controlled Substances Act. So, it is a very small group of offenders or investigations that we are talking about.

The only particularity provided in the act is that it is either an indictable offence or an offence under the Controlled Substances Act, and then there are particular offences under the fisheries act, the Lottery and Gaming Act and the National Parks and Wildlife Act, none of which are mentioned in the report because presumably there were no such investigations.

What I can do for the honourable member is see whether it is possible for me to ascertain in the broadest possible sense what the classes of indictable offence were that were being investigated here, but my expectation is that we would be talking about things which would include things like blackmail and serious financial crime associated with very serious criminal activity in the broader sense.

In fact, it might well be that there is quite an overlap between those indictable offences and the Controlled Substances Act offences, but I will try to find, in a generic way, a list of the sorts of offences. By the very nature of this report, it is not reasonable or, indeed, proper for me to provide much detail because clearly it is an extremely risky business for the individuals concerned.

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