The Federal Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement has completed its inquiry into Commonwealth unexplained wealth legislation and arrangements. Its report was tabled in Parliament yesterday [Mon 19.3.2012]. The report is available on the Committee website.
According to the Committee, “unexplained wealth laws can be used to target serious and organised crime bosses who arrange their affairs so that they can enjoy the proceeds of crime, without committing the actual crimes themselves”. However, the Committee was of the view that the laws have “not worked as intended”. The Committee made 18 recommendations to “significantly enhance the effectiveness” of the laws.
In particular, the Committee recommended major reform of the way unexplained wealth is dealt with in Australia as part of a harmonisation of Commonwealth, state and territory laws. In addition, the Committee recommended a series of technical amendments to help ensure that unexplained wealth proceedings are “efficient and fair,” and to correct deficiencies that were identified during the course of the inquiry.
Notably, the Committee recommended that the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 be amended so as to allow the Tax Office to use information gained through telecommunications interception, in the course of joint investigations by taskforces prescribed under the Taxation Administration Act 1953, for the purpose of the protection of public finances (Recommendation 7). The Committee also recommended that the Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT) be prescribed as a taskforce under the Taxation Administration Act 1953 and associated regulations (Recommendation 6).
[LTN 54, 20/3]