Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to be speaking on the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Matters) Bill 2008. The bill proposes to make three minor amendments: in the Australian Federal Police Act 1979, in the Crimes Act 1914 and in the Crimes (Aviation) Act 1991. None of the three amendments are controversial; rather they are updating outdated legislation or fixing minor administrative oversights in the act as they stand. The bill seeks to reinsert the maximum penalty of two years imprisonment for the secrecy offence in subsection 60A(2) of the Australian Federal Police Act 1979. The penalty was inadvertently repealed by the Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner (Consequential Amendments) Act 2006. The re-enactment of the penalty is retrospective to when it was repealed so as to ensure that any convictions related to offences of this nature in the past two years do not escape punishment. The opposition supports that change in the bill.

Secondly, the bill seeks to alter the timing of the second review into part ID of the Crimes Act 1914 with regard to the collection and use of DNA material by Commonwealth law enforcement agencies. There was a review of this matter in March 2003, and the legislation required that a second review take place two years later—in other words, in March 2005. This did not take place, as interjurisdictional DNA matching between most states and territories and the Commonwealth has only been effectively in place since mid-2007. It is argued that for a review to be fully effective it is desirable that a body of cases progress from matching to investigation to trial so that there can been a meaningful test of the powers and safeguards in the legislation. The bill therefore requires that the second review commence no later than 1 November 2009. Again, the opposition supports the change.

Thirdly, the bill seeks to ensure that the ACT Criminal Code is applied to flights originating or finishing in Australia or flights on Australian aircraft. Currently the ACT Crimes Act 1900 and the ACT Prostitution Act 1992 apply to criminal behaviour on board flights. However, many offences which were formerly in the ACT Crimes Act now appear in the ACT Criminal Code. This amendment will also allow regulations to be made to specify particular ACT laws that apply on relevant flights. This will provide flexibility in the event of future changes to the ACT criminal law. As I said, the bill is not controversial. It is a follow-on from work that the previous government originated. As a consequence, the opposition has no difficulty with the bill and will be supporting it.

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