According to Attorney-General’s Office, white collar criminals and serious and organised crime groups will face tougher penalties after new laws passed the Parliament recently.
Attorney-General Nicola Roxon explained the Crime Bill will increase penalties for all Commonwealth crimes, create a new offence of using a false identity when travelling on airplanes and speed up the processing of new illegal drugs.
“Penalty units” in the Commonwealth Crimes Act will increase from $110 to $170. Penalty units have not increased since 1997.
“Crimes doesn’t pay. These new laws will make it easier to fight identity crime, new and emerging drug importation and trafficking and white collar tax crimes”, Ms Roxon said.
“Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in Australia. Organised criminals invent or steal identities in order to evade detection and commit serious crimes such as money laundering, drug offences, fraud and terrorism.
“This Bill will make it a criminal offence to use a false identity when travelling within Australia by a ir or booking domestic flights on line or using a mobile phone.
“We are increasing the value of the “penalty unit” to $170 to make sure penalties keep pace with inflation and are a real deterrent to white collar and organised crime.”
This Bill also allows the list of substances to which the Commonwealth’s drug’s laws apply to be updated by regulation, rather than by amending the Commonwealth Criminal Code, and will improve mechanisms for making emergency determinations in relation to new substances.
“Illicit drugs have a terrible impact on the Australian community and the Government is dedicated to ensuring that our laws are responsive to the new drug treats,” Ms Roxon said.
“We must target new and emerging drugs which organised criminals are importing and trafficking.”
Mike Alvarez, a CPA and Registered Tax Agent, is the director of QA Audit and Tax Services, a CPA Practice, telephone 02 9628 2933.
