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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-10-18 Daily Xml
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CRIMINAL ASSETS CONFISCATION (PRESCRIBED DRUG OFFENDER ASSETS) AMENDMENT BILL

Second Reading

Second reading.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (16:27): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading explanation inserted in Hansard without my reading it.

Leave granted.

Labor's 2010 Serious Crime election policy stated that 'This proposal will amend the Criminal Assets Confiscation Act…to target persistent or high level drug offenders to provide for total confiscation of the property of a "Declared Drug Trafficker"'. The policy details were:

New powers will be given to the Director of Public Prosecutions to allow criminal drug dealers who commit three prescribed offences within a span of 10 years to be 'declared a drug trafficker.

Under this proposal, which targets high level and major drug trafficking offenders, all of a convicted offender's property can be confiscated, whether or not it is established as unlawfully acquired and whether or not there is any level of proof about any property at all. Property and assets could also be restrained pending prosecution of matters before the court.

The legislation will attack repeat drug offenders. The offences that will attract the declaration if committed 3 or more times within a span of 10 years include:

Trafficking in controlled drugs;

Manufacture of controlled drugs for sale;

Sale of controlled precursor for the purpose of manufacture;

Cultivation of controlled plants for sale;

Sale of controlled plants; and

Any offence involving children and school zones.

The Bill, with a modification, fulfils this election pledge.

Prescribed Drug Offenders

The idea that all of the property of certain drug offenders (described in the Bill as prescribed drug offenders) should be confiscated, whether or not it has any link to crime at all and whether or not legitimately earned or acquired, originated in the Western Australian Criminal Property Forfeiture Act 2000. If a person is taken to be a declared drug trafficker under either section 32A(1) of the Misuse of Drugs Act of that State or is declared under section 159(2) of the Confiscation Act, then, effectively, all of their property is confiscated without any exercise of discretion at all, whether or not it is lawfully acquired and whether or not there is any level of proof about any property at all. The two situations are a convicted drug trafficker of a certain kind and an absconding accused. The first category is the most general.

With respect to convicted drug offenders, there are two situations catered for. The first is the repeat offender. The second is the major offender (whether repeat or not).

The repeat offender is caught if he is convicted on a third (or more) offence for nominated offences within a period of 10 years. The nominated offences are: possession of a prohibited drug with intent to sell or supply, manufacturing or preparing; or selling or supplying, or offering to sell or supply, a prohibited drug; possession of a prohibited plant with intent to sell or supply, or selling or supplying, or offering to sell or supply, a prohibited plant; attempting to commit these offences; and conspiring to commit these offences.

The major offender is caught if the person commits any one offence at any time about a prohibited drug or prohibited plant that exceeds a prescribed amount. Those amounts are prescribed in Schedules to the Act (not regulations) and list, for example, 28 grams of amphetamine, 3 kilograms of cannabis, 100 grams of cannabis resin, 28 grams of heroin and 250 cannabis plants.

Section 159(2) says that a person will be taken to be a declared drug trafficker if the person is charged with a serious drug offence within the meaning of section 32A(3) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1981 and the person could be declared to be a drug trafficker under section 32A(1) of that Act if he or she is convicted of the offence, and the person absconds in connection with the offence, or dies, before the charge is disposed of or finally determined. A serious drug offence within the meaning of section 32A(3) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1981 means a crime under section 6(1), 7(1), 33(1)(a) or 33(2)(a) of that Act. The content of these crimes has been outlined immediately above.

The Northern Territory Criminal Property Forfeiture Act contains very similar provisions, obviously modelled on the Western Australian Act. However, the Northern Territory Act contains only the repeat offender version of the first category and extends to death and absconding. It does not contain what is described as the major offender category described above. No other Australian jurisdiction has anything like either of these Acts.

Under the WA scheme and its counterpart in the Northern Territory, all of the declared drug trafficker's assets are subject to forfeiture - everything. The Government has taken the view that it will ameliorate the harshness of the scheme by providing that the prescribed offender forfeit everything except what a bankrupt would be allowed to keep. These rules are to be found in regulation 6.03 of the Commonwealth Bankruptcy Regulations 1996. The lists are extensive, but the general principle is:

Subsection 116(1) of the Act does not extend to household property (including recreational and sports equipment) that is reasonably necessary for the domestic use of the bankrupt's household, having regard to current social standards.

High Level or Major Traffickers

Whether or not a person can be presumed to be, in common usage, a high level or major trafficker will depend largely, but not wholly, on the amount of the drug with which he or she is associated. The SA amounts listed in the SA Controlled Substances (General) Regulations as indicating commercial activity are those prescribed as a result of a national consultative process fixing amounts on the basis of research across Australia on the actual activities of the illicit drug markets informed by police expertise. The obvious way to proceed is to fix on the amounts already settled.

Repeat Offenders

The legislation also attacks repeat offenders. The key to this category is settling the offences to which it applies - that is, what offences will attract the declaration if committed 3 or more times within a span of 10 years. The Bill says that the offences to which it should apply are serious drug offences that are indictable. These are those offences listed in that part of the Controlled Substances Act 1984 under the headings 'Commercial offences' and 'Offences involving children and school zones'.

The Fund

The proceeds from the existing criminal assets confiscation scheme must be paid into the Victims of Crime Fund (after the costs of administering the scheme are deducted). It is proposed that funds raised by the application of this new initiative be devoted to another fund, to be called the Justice Resources Fund. This Fund will be devoted to the provision of moneys for courts infrastructure, equipment and services and the provision of moneys for justice programs and facilities for dealing with drug and alcohol related crime. Disbursements will not overlap with those made from or eligible for moneys from the existing Victims of Crime Fund. The Government does not believe it to be proper that money from the Fund be spent on law enforcement or criminal investigation purposes.

Other Aspects of the Scheme

The Western Australian scheme has also been modified so that a court has a discretion to ameliorate the inflexible application of this scheme if the offender has effectively co-operated with a law enforcement agency relating directly to the investigation or occurrence or possible occurrence of a serious and organised crime offence. For these purposes, a serious and organised crime offence is defined in a way that mirrors the definition in the Australian Crime Commission (South Australia) Act 2004. Every encouragement should be given to serious criminals to inform on their co-offenders and any criminal organisations to which they belong or are party.

As is the case with the WA and NT legislation, a person is a prescribed drug offender where there is sufficient evidence to conclude that a person would have been liable to be a prescribed drug offender and the person either absconds or dies.

The Bill also adopts the Northern Territory innovation that the time period of 10 years in relation to the repeat offender does not run if and while the offender is imprisoned.

This Bill was originally a part of the Criminal Assets Confiscation (Prescribed Drug Offenders) Amendment Bill 2011. The Opposition, with the support of sufficient independents, saw fit to strip out and defeat the substance of this Bill. This time they will have to vote against it as a Bill if they intend the same result.

I commend the Bill to Members.

Explanation of Clauses

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

2—Commencement

3—Amendment provisions

These clauses are formal.

Part 2—Amendment of Criminal Assets Confiscation Act 2005

4—Amendment of long title

This clause amends the long title of the principal Act to reflect the changes made by this measure.

5—Amendment of section 3—Interpretation

This clause amends section 3 of the principal Act to include, or to consequentially amend, definitions of terms used in respect of the amendments made by this measure.

6—Insertion of section 6A

This clause inserts new section 6A into the principal Act. It sets out what is a prescribed drug offender, namely a person who is convicted of a commercial drug offence after the commencement of the proposed section, or who is convicted of another serious drug offence and has at least 2 other convictions for prescribed drug offences, those offences and the conviction offence all being committed on separate occasions within a period of 10 years. However, the 10 year period does not include any time spent in government custody. The proposed section makes procedural provision in respect of the convictions able to be used in the determining whether a person is a prescribed drug offender. The proposed section also defines key terms used in respect of prescribed drug offenders, including setting out what are commercial and prescribed drug offences.

7—Amendment of section 10—Application of Act

This clause makes a consequential amendment to section 10 of the principal Act.

8—Amendment of section 24—Restraining orders

This clause inserts new subsection (5a) into section 24 of the principal Act, which prevents a court from specifying protected property (the definition of which is inserted by this measure) in a restraining order unless there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the property is the proceeds of, or is an instrument of, a serious offence.

9—Amendment of section 34—Court may exclude property from restraining order

This clause amends section 34 of the principal Act by inserting new subparagraph (ia), adding to the list of matters a court must be satisfied of before it may exclude property from a restraining order. The subparagraph is divided into parts dealing with where the suspect has, and has not, been convicted of the serious offence to which the restraining order relates.

The first such matter is that the court can only exclude property where the suspect has not, or would not, become a prescribed drug offender on conviction of the serious offence. Alternatively, the property may be excluded if the court is satisfied it is not owned by, nor under the effective control of, the suspect in the circumstances spelt out in the provision (even if the suspect is, or will be upon conviction of the relevant offence, a prescribed drug offender).

The power to correct an error in respect of the inclusion of the relevant property when making the restraining order is given to the court because the property restrained in respect of prescribed drug offenders is not necessarily proceeds nor an instrument of crime.

10—Amendment of section 47—Forfeiture orders

This clause amends section 47(1)(a) of the principal Act to include the fact that a person is a prescribed drug offender as a ground for the making of a forfeiture order under that section (provided that the relevant property was owned by or subject to the effective control of the person on the conviction day for the conviction offence).

11—Amendment of section 57—Relieving certain dependants from hardship

This clause makes a consequential amendment due to the amendment of section 47(1)(a) by this measure.

12—Amendment of section 58—Making exclusion orders before forfeiture order is made

This clause amends section 58 of the principal Act to provide that property sought to be excluded from a forfeiture order must not, in the case of a forfeiture order to which section 47(1)(a)(ii) applies (ie a prescribed drug offender order), at the relevant time be owned by, or under the effective control of, the prescribed drug offender (unless it is protected property of the person).

13—Amendment of section 59—Making exclusion orders after forfeiture

This clause amends section 59, consistent with clause 15, to provide that property sought to be excluded from a forfeiture order must not, in the case of a forfeiture order to which section 47(1)(a)(ii) applies (ie a prescribed drug offender order), at the relevant time be owned by, or under the effective control of, the prescribed drug offender (unless it is protected property of the person).

14—Insertion of section 59A

This clause inserts new section 59A into the principal Act. That section allows a person to apply for property to be excluded from a restraining order because the person has cooperated with a law enforcement authority in relation to a serious and organised crime offence, be it one that has occurred or may occur in future.

The mechanisms and procedures in relation to an order excluding the property are similar to other such provisions in the principal Act.

15—Amendment of section 62A—No exclusion or compensation where forfeiture taken into account in sentencing

This clause makes a consequential amendment to section 62A (proposed to be inserted by the Criminal Assets Confiscation (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill 2012).

16—Amendment of section 76—Excluding property from forfeiture under this Division

This clause amends section 76 to prevent exclusion of property owned by or under the effective control of a prescribed drug offender (other than protected property).

17—Insertion of section 76AA

This clause inserts a provision similar to the provision in clause 14 allowing for exclusion from forfeiture based on cooperation with a law enforcement agency.

18—Amendment of section 76A—No exclusion where forfeiture taken into account in sentencing

This clause makes a consequential amendment.

19—Substitution of section 203

This clause amends the structure of section 203 of the principal Act to reflect the changes made by this measure.

20—Amendment of heading

This clause is consequential.

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

This clause is consequential.

22—Insertion of section 209A

This clause provides for the establishment of the Justice Resources Fund, to be administered by the Attorney-General, and for the proceeds of confiscated assets of prescribed drug offenders to be paid into the fund.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. S.G. Wade.

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