Review of the Criminal Organisation Act 2009 15 December 2015 Alan Wilson SC 2 3 Contents Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................................ 7 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Why review COA? ................................................................................................................... 10 1.2 Organised Crime .................................................................................................................... 11 1.3 The aims and objects of COA ............................................................................................... 14 1.4 How COA works ..................................................................................................................... 14 1.5 The Finks application ............................................................................................................ 15 1.6 The Pompano case: the Finks challenge COA in the High Court ........................................ 16 1.7 Other relevant Queensland legislation ................................................................................ 17 1.8 Legislation in other jurisdictions .......................................................................................... 18 1.9 Should COA, or some parts of it, be retained? .................................................................... 19 1.10 Effective anti-organised crime legislation ......................................................................... 19 1.11 The work behind this review .............................................................................................. 19 1.12 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 20 2 Organised Crime ................................................................................................................................ 21 2.1 What is organised crime? ..................................................................................................... 21 2.2 OMCGs as organised crime .................................................................................................. 26 2.3 OMCGs and organised criminal activity in Queensland – a statistical view ...................... 30 3 Aims and Objects of COA ................................................................................................................... 33 3.1 The background to the introduction of COA and its primary focus upon OMCGs ............. 33 3.2 The anticipated uses of COA ................................................................................................ 34 3.3 The aims and objects of COA ............................................................................................... 35 4 The operation of COA ......................................................................................................................... 39 4.1 Criminal Intelligence ............................................................................................................. 39 4.2 Issues arising from the use of criminal intelligence ........................................................... 43 4.3 Criminal Organisations ......................................................................................................... 63 4.4 Control, Public Safety and Anti-Fortification orders ............................................................ 74 4.5 The operation of COA’s substantive provisions ................................................................... 81 4.6 Corresponding orders and other features ........................................................................... 82 4.7 Accountability mechanisms .................................................................................................. 83 5 The Finks Application ...................................................................................................................... 101 5.1 The progress of the Finks case .......................................................................................... 101 5.2 The criminal intelligence declaration proceedings ........................................................... 102 5.3 The substantive application ............................................................................................... 104 4 5.4 Why was the Finks application discontinued by the Queensland Police Service? ......... 105 5.5 Queensland Police Service observations about the COA process, CI and substantive applications ................................................................................................................................ 106 5.6 The role of the COPIM ......................................................................................................... 106 5.7 Court management of applications ................................................................................... 107 5.8 Summary.............................................................................................................................. 108 6 High Court challenge to COA ........................................................................................................... 111 6.1 The Finks proceedings ........................................................................................................ 111 6.2 The High Court’s decision ................................................................................................... 112 6.3 Summary of why COA does not infringe the Kable principle ............................................ 115 6.4 What the High Court did not decide ................................................................................... 117 7 Other Queensland legislation aimed at criminal organisations .................................................... 123 7.1 COA’s future is interwoven with the full package of legislation aimed at criminal organisations ............................................................................................................................. 123 7.2 Criminal Code (Qld) and Drugs Misuse Act 1986 (Qld) .................................................... 123 7.3 Criminal confiscation legislation ........................................................................................ 124 7.4 The 2013 suite of laws ....................................................................................................... 126 7.5 The High Court challenge to the 2013 suite of laws: Kuczborski v Queensland ............ 130 7.6 Remaining doubts about the constitutional validity of the 2013 suite ........................... 132 8 Legislative attempts to combat organised crime in other jurisdictions ....................................... 135 8.1 Lessons learned from other jurisdictions .......................................................................... 135 8.2 New South Wales ................................................................................................................ 138 8.3 South Australia .................................................................................................................... 145 8.4 Western Australia ................................................................................................................ 159 8.5 Northern Territory ................................................................................................................ 165 8.6 Victoria ................................................................................................................................. 169 8.7 Tasmania ............................................................................................................................. 175 8.8 Australian Capital Territory ................................................................................................. 178 8.9 Commonwealth of Australia ............................................................................................... 180 8.10 United States .................................................................................................................... 183 8.11 Canada .............................................................................................................................. 190 8.12 New Zealand ..................................................................................................................... 193 8.13 United Kingdom ................................................................................................................ 194 8.14 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 203 8.15 Timeline of declaration and control order legislation ..................................................... 205 8.16 Table comparing key tests under declaration and control order legislation ................ 206 5 9 Policy Options ................................................................................................................................... 213 9.1 Criminal intelligence ........................................................................................................... 213 9.2 Criminal organisation declarations and control orders .................................................... 213 9.3 Public Safety Orders ...........................................................................................................