Page 4542 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 26 November 2019
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The social structure and the behaviour of organised criminal groups is often characterised by a ready disregard for rules, laws and general social order, creating a public safety risk to the community. There are different aspects to public safety and this bill focuses on two different approaches. The first is to strengthen the regulatory schemes that ensure that the construction and liquor industries are not vehicles for criminal activity. The second is to improve the response to public order incidents and other gang-related offending.
The first series of amendments include introducing an exclusion order scheme to exclude certain people from specified licensed premises for a civil mechanism and also the cancellation of a licence under the Liquor Act 2010 or the Construction Occupations (Licensing Act) 2004 on the basis of a person’s criminal activities.
The importance of strengthening regulatory schemes as a response to organised crime has been recognised by all of the first law offices in Australia through the Council of Attorneys-General. In June 2018 the council agreed that organised crime is a pervasive threat to the community and that all attorneys-general would have regard to a statement of guiding principles when developing legislative responses to organised crime.
One of those six principles is that jurisdictions should have a suitable occupational and industry regulatory regime to prevent criminal organisations and their members from entering into or operating through lawful occupations. The amendments to the ACT’s construction and liquor licensing regimes contained in this bill support the commitment to the Council of Attorneys-General.
The bill introduces a civil-based mechanism into both those regulatory schemes to allow a construction licence or a liquor licence or permit to be cancelled if the criteria are met. The overarching criterion for cancellation is that the licensee or permit holder continuing to hold the licence or permit presents an unacceptable risk to community safety because of their criminal activity.
It is important to be clear that these provisions do not mean that anyone who has been convicted of an offence will be subject to an application by the Chief Police Officer to the ACT Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal or the Magistrates Court. The bill does not seek to remove the ability of someone to work simply because at some point in their life they have committed an offence. Rather, there must be a causal connection between the person’s criminal activity and the unacceptable risk their continuing to hold the licence presents to community safety.
I acknowledge that these provisions may engage and limit certain rights of members of a criminal gang under the Human Rights Act 2004. However, as any restriction is limited to individuals who choose to be involved in criminal groups and activities, they are proportionate and the least restrictive possible.
The other category of amendments work in conjunction with the regulatory scheme amendments to improve responses to deter individuals from being involved in criminal gangs. Three types of amendments sit within this category, all working
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