Queensland Criminal Proceeds Confiscation (Unexplained Wealth and Serious Drug Offender Confiscation Order) Amendment Act 2013

Queensland has enacted its Criminal Proceeds Confiscation (Unexplained Wealth and Serious Drug Offender Confiscation Order) Amendment Bill 2012 despite a large degree of criticism from the law society.

The Queensland legislation effectively reverses the onus of proof in matters where a person’s property/benefits are suspected to have come from criminal activity. In principle, prosecutors will no longer need to prove this on balance of probabilities. The law essentially provides where a person has accumulated wealth that does not seem commensurate with his/her lifestyle and livelihood, that person would bear the onus of providing that the wealth was legitimately acquired.

This Act highlights Queensland’s continued refusal to refer laws dealing with organised crime to the Commonwealth. Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie claimed that the State will not need the federal government taking over this matter. Bleijie voiced strong opinions about Queensland’s capabilities of dealing with its own criminal laws and how ineffective the Commonwealth Government would be with regards to this matter. He said “How can Queenslanders have confidence in the federal government's ability to deal with this issue? They can't stop illegal boats, how can we expect them to stop outlaw bikies already here?”

However, the Queensland Law Society has questioned the need for these additional laws and criticised its overall application. The Law Society argued that the legislation would make confiscations too easy to occur and difficult to disprove. The society went on to state the act "undermines the presumption of innocence and– totally contrary to how our legal system works – places an oppressive onus of proof on the respondent.”

The full effect of the Act is still yet to be seen.

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