Thursday, 15 August 2024

Government construction projects

David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:13): I would like to draw the house’s attention to something that I believe has been overlooked potentially by Parliament and certainly by the media and that is the connection between many arms of organised crime, which I have spoken much about in this place. We know from Parliamentary Budget Office figures that the heroin market is around a quarter of a billion dollars per year. We know that the black market for vaping products is about a half a billion dollars per year. I think we can estimate that the black cannabis market is about $1 billion per year, and on top of this there are other markets which I do not have numbers on, such as methamphetamine and other drugs. One must conclude that all of this money is somehow being laundered. I do not believe that it is being laundered through fruit and veggie shops. I do not believe that it is being laundered through the casino. In fact there are very few industries that could launder this amount of money and I would suggest that the one industry that is big enough to absorb this sort of money for money laundering is construction. Therefore I call on all members of Parliament to support my push to have the Auditor-General urgently investigate government procurement contracts so that maybe we can shed some light on what has been happening in the construction sector, because if it is being used as a vehicle for money laundering for other organised criminal activities, it must be stopped.