Criminal suspects will soon have to explain the source of their wealth and if the explanation isn't good enough, face losing the lot.
Justice Minister Michael Keenan says the Commonwealth, states and territories have finally agreed on a regime which will allow the Australian Crime Commission to use its coercive powers to explain the source of expensive homes and other wealth.
"There are people within the community who are reporting to the Australian Taxation Office, for example, that they have a very low income who are clearly living a lifestyle that is far beyond the income they have declared," he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
Mr Keenan was speaking after the meeting of Commonwealth, state and territory attorneys-general, justice and police ministers.
An unexplained wealth regime would allow suspects to be questioned about the source of their wealth.
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"If they are not able to give a plausible explanation for where that income comes from, we can apply to a court to have that wealth confiscated," he said.
Mr Keenan said it was a long-term objective of several governments to take on big organised crime gangs with national and international footprints.
A report by former NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney and former Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Palmer concluded that was only possible if states and territories referred their powers to the Commonwealth.
So far NSW has agreed with others expected to follow.
Mr Keenan said any referral of state powers would always be controversial.
The minister has travelled around Australia explaining to the states and territories what this would mean for police in their ability to make sure kingpin criminals could not live off their ill-gotten gains.
NSW Police Minister Troy Grant said police would be allowed to properly tackle organised crime gangs who operated across state borders.
"We have a very clear message for them - we are coming after you and we are going to get you," he told reporters.
Mr Grant cited the example of the pizza shop which would need to make 8000 pizzas an hour to produce their reported income.
"There are some ridiculous examples just like that out there," he said.
"We will now have the capacity and cooperation across the federal government to dive into that and get them to answer questions they need to answer."
