Australia’s war against organised crime has hotted up. The arrest of accused drug lord Tse Chi Lop and allegations of large-scale money laundering in Australian casinos have exposed to the public the deep economic connections transnational and organised crime syndicates have established here, and the scale of the threat we face. The extent of these connections adds urgency to the recent call by the human rights subcommittee of the parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade for Australia to adopt Magnitsky-style legislation. The US Magnitsky Act began as an effort to hold officials of foreign countries accountable for human rights abuses. The legislation, which applies globally, gives the US government the legal means to the freeze assets of and ban US entry to those it lists for involvement in human rights abuses. Canada and the UK have introduced similar legislation.