Mr NATHAN HAGARTY (Leppington) (16:04): I speak in support of the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Organised and Gang-related Crime Reforms) Bill 2026, an important and timely bill that seeks to amend a series of Acts to implement recommendations of a 2022 statutory review into organised crime. The bill also seeks to make additional amendments to respond to trends in organised crime and other serious crimes.
Many of the Government members who have spoken in support of the bill come from Western Sydney. It is a very serious and pressing issue in our region. Not too many days go by without news headlines or TV reports about kidnappings, shootings in public places, firebombings and the like. Much of that is associated with organised crime and the illicit drug trade. While the reforms may limit civil rights, they do so in response to the commission of very serious offences. The bill makes a series of amendments to crimes legislation. It enhances offences and penalties with respect to recruiting children—I will speak more on that later—the use of kill cars, arson, shootings in public places and the like. The other issue I will speak in detail on is powers in relation to digital devices and, related to that, proceeds of crime and criminal asset recovery.
Some of the reforms will certainly target the front line of organised crime, which is the young people who are being exploited. I am told that many young people are being recruited from my part of the world through encrypted devices and apps. They are told what to do and where to turn up, then they get paid—all without knowing who the client is. The people behind these crimes assume that if the juveniles get caught, they will not be prosecuted as harshly as they otherwise would. That is why it is important that we are increasing the penalty for recruiting a child to engage in criminal activity from 10 to 12 years imprisonment, and to 15 years where the child is under the age of 16 or recruited to engage in certain serious offences. Should the bill pass, it will send a very clear signal that the loophole that members of organised crime networks have exploited will shut. Given what we have heard in the contributions of members opposite, the bill will pass. It will depend—like most things do these days—on what happens in the other place. I look forward to seeing what goes on up there.
The other issue I will cover is digital devices. While some of the provisions I spoke about earlier will deal with criminals, including young people, on the front line who are committing serious offences like firebombings and shootings in public places on a daily basis, it is important that we do not lose sight of the fact that those people are being recruited, paid and driven by major figures in organised crime. This is where the enhancement of powers to access digital devices will assist. It is one thing to arrest 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds for doing things they should not do, but it is incredibly important to be able to go up the chain and take out the people who are running or are very senior members of organised crime networks.
The additional powers and definitions in the Criminal Assets Recovery Act and the Confiscation of Proceeds of Crime Act mean that police will have the power to seize assets and proceeds of crime from criminals. The rumour mill is hot in Western Sydney and south-western Sydney. The average person on the street thinks they have a pretty good idea of where the money from these enterprises goes. If members see the cranes around certain parts of Sydney, they will probably have a good idea of where the money goes too. There have been firebombings at places that sell tobacco. This legislation goes some way to stopping the ultimate motivator of some organised crime networks, which is the incredible amount of money that they can generate. The Premier has been pretty vocal about the Federal Government and the tobacco excise, and the difference that might make. There is not much that we can do in State Parliament, but we rely on our friends in Canberra to act on that.
This very important suite of reforms will stop some of those criminal acts and, if they occur, will ensure that the police have the power to prosecute and go further up the chain than they otherwise would in order to get the people who are higher up. Most importantly, it sends a clear signal to the community that we take this stuff incredibly seriously. The perception of crime has an impact in safe suburban streets, if people wake up and find out that someone has sprayed up the house next door and there are bullet holes, or they find out that a car or a shop down the road has been firebombed. People should not have to live with that uncertainty and fear.
The average person might hold the view that if the bad guys are taking each other out, that is all well and good. When they start to take out innocent people, however, it causes concern. There are recent examples of the wrong person being targeted or kidnapped. In part, that is a result of the newer methods of recruitment. They are using apps and encrypted services to recruit people who are probably not the most professional in those illegal trades. Horrendous mistakes have been made, and I can think of a couple of high‑profile cases.
I commend the Minister for the enormous amount of work that has been done behind the scenes in relation to the bill. There has been extensive consultation with the DPP, Legal Aid, the Bar Association, the Law Society and various law enforcement agencies. The contributions from members opposite suggest that the bill will pass this House. I call on them to have a chat to their colleagues in the upper House to make sure that the legislation gets through as quickly as possible. As nearly every member who contributed to the debate has made clear, our communities cannot afford to wait a day longer while these crimes continue on an all too regular basis. I commend the bill to the House.
