Regulatory Regimes and Organised Crime: Consultation Paper

Preface

The Victorian Government has charged the Victorian Law Reform Commission with the task of reviewing the use of regulatory regimes to help prevent organised crime and criminal organisations infiltrating lawful occupations and industries.

Organised crime groups are often described as flexible and adaptive. As such, they present an ever-evolving challenge for law enforcement and regulatory agencies. The Commission welcomes the opportunity to consider how best to equip those agencies to meet that challenge through the use of regulatory tools such as licensing regimes.

The Commission has not been asked to conduct an examination of particular occupations and industries. The Commission will instead be considering the regulatory regimes that apply to a range of lawful occupations and industries in Victoria in order to develop an understanding of the range of tools available to regulators.

Through its consultation process, the Commission seeks a deeper understanding of the efficacy of those tools and the costs and benefits of their use for regulators, business operators and other stakeholders.

Based on its research and the fruits of its consultations, the Commission will develop a framework of principles for assessing the risks of organised crime infiltration of different occupations and industries and for developing suitable regulatory responses. The Commission will seek to develop principles of broad applicability, though it is recognised that every occupation and industry has its own idiosyncrasies which must be taken into account.

The regulation of occupations and industries affects a range of stakeholders; so too does the risk or actuality of infiltration by organised crime. I encourage anyone with an interest in the issues discussed in this paper to make a written submission to the Commission by 3 August 2015. The method of making a submission is described on pages v–vi of this paper.

The Hon. P. D. Cummins AM

Chair

Victorian Law Reform Commission

June 2015