While Australian states and territories are generally responsible for criminal law, the Law, Crime and Community Safety Council, recognising areas of shared interest, has endorsed a new national organised crime response plan to continue to promote a coordinated national approach to combating serious and organised crime. The National Organised Crime Response Plan 2015-2018 was endorsed by the Commonwealth, State and Territory Attorneys General and Police Ministers endorsed at the Law, Crime and Community Safety Council meeting in Canberra on May 22, 2015.
The meeting was chaired by Commonwealth Attorney-General, the Hon George Brandis MP, and Minister for Justice, the Hon Michael Keenan MP. Ministers from the Commonwealth, each state and territory with portfolio responsibility for law and justice, police and emergency management were in attendance, as was a representative of the Australian Local Government Association. New Zealand was represented by officials from New Zealand Police.
The National Organised Crime Response Plan 2015-2018 is described as being vital in the fight against organised crime and the threat it poses to Australia, and outlines how the Commonwealth, states and territories will work together over the next three years to address a number of key threats from serious and organised crime. This includes the increasing prevalence of drugs such as ice and gun-related crime and violence, the emerging threats of online scams, hacking and the theft of personal information stored electronically, and the suspected links with financing terrorism.