FEDERAL Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare is setting up for another stoush with the state government on gun crime in western Sydney, saying he wants to press ahead with tough unexplained wealth laws being urged by the country's national police associations and wants the states to back them.
Mr Clare said the states should agree with the Commonwealth to make new laws so that assets can be seized from criminals if they cannot explain where they get them from, regardless of whether an offence can be connected to the assets or not.
He first raised the issue at a meeting with state ministers last year but it was rejected.
The Daily Telegraph revealed yesterday the Police Federation of Australia and Australian Federal Police Association were pushing for the laws.
"I have been talking to police at the epicentre of the shootings in western Sydney," Mr Clare said.
"Their advice to me is the best way to break these gangs is to seize their cash, their cars and their homes.
"This is all about money. Money creates power in the criminal underworld.
"Most of these criminals are more afraid of losing their money than they are of going to jail."
Mr Clare said the federal government could introduce the toughest gang laws Australia had ever had but that would require the states to give over the power to pass the laws.
Last year the states refused to hand over those powers on anti-bikie laws.
"Criminals move from state to state. So do drugs and guns," Mr Clare said.
"We need a national system to seize their money and their assets - national unexplained wealth laws.
"They reverse the onus of proof that means the onus is on the criminal to prove how they obtained their cash and assets through legitimate means.
"It will mean more money taken off criminals, more money for the states, and more for crime prevention projects."
But a spokesman for Police Minister Mike Gallacher said NSW had refused to refer its powers to the Commonwealth to allow it to take over laws around seizing criminal assets and would continue to maintain that position.
The spokesman said there was evidence federal authorities did not have as much experience as the states in handling such issues.
"The Commonwealth Attorney-General and the Minister for Home Affairs wrote to the NSW government last year seeking a proposed referral of power for unexplained wealth and asset forfeiture," the spokesman said.
"The government does not support such a referral. NSW has an effective forfeiture of assets regime and it has for many years proved one of the most successful in Australia."
Since sharing arrangements were implemented, NSW has remitted almost $2 million to the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth has remitted $199,000 to NSW. Any proposed national harmonisation of unexplained wealth laws would need to address the equitability of sharing arrangements."
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