Ill-informed claims made by the Northern Territory Attorney-General and NSW Attorney-General ahead of today’s Standing Council on Law and Justice in Darwin that the Commonwealth Government has offered no plan to tackle organised crime and has taken the issue off the agenda are absurd in the extreme.
“First I would point out that the Prime Minister has made it explicitly clear that the Federal Government will take a plan to introduce national anti-gang laws, national unexplained wealth laws and reforms to tackle the illegal firearms market to a meeting of the COAG this month,” said Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC.
“These reforms have been elevated to COAG because state and territory attorneys-general did not support a Commonwealth criminal organisation control regime discussed at the Standing Council on Law and Justice meeting last April. Mr Elferink and Mr Smith have very short memories.
“In the meantime, the Gillard Government has moved to establish a National Anti-Gang Taskforce to fight gang-related crime across Australia. You would have to have been living under a rock not to have noticed that announcement. The $64 million Taskforce will be made up of seventy officers from the Australian Federal Police and State Police forces,” said Mr Dreyfus.
“Particularly, I would remind Mr Elferink and Mr Smith that it was the Commonwealth Government that raised the need for national unexplained wealth laws and put this reform on the agenda at both meetings of the Standing Council on Law and Justice in 2012. We wrote to each state Attorney-General seeking referral of powers. The States and Territories rejected all requests.
“Gang-violence and organised crime are issues of national importance and require a national response. Organised criminals move from state to state. They also have assets in different states and overseas. It is vital that state and federal law enforcement agencies have the powers they need to break up gangs and seize their assets. National anti-gang and asset seizure laws will help ensure police have the powers they need and there are no safe havens.”
At COAG in July 2012, it was agreed that the Commonwealth and States would continue to work together on a coordinated approach to organised crime.
“We have been waiting to get these measures off the ground for eighteen months. We have circulated a paper in advance of this month’s COAG which the states, territories and federal government are all working on. They know that national action relies on a referral of power and we hope they are now ready to co-operate,” said Mr Dreyfus.
