Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Bill 2014 is an important reform to achieve improved regulatory outcomes and enhance access to justice.

This government is determined to reduce regulation and make Commonwealth laws clear and accessible. This bill will significantly simplify and streamline Commonwealth regulatory powers across the statute book over time, and improve the accessibility, efficiency and effectiveness of the federal justice system.

The bill will make it easier for businesses that are subject to regulatory regimes to understand and comply with the law. It will also provide greater clarity to those agencies currently exercising regulatory powers under multiple regimes.

The bill provides a framework of powers for general application across regulatory schemes for monitoring compliance with, investigating breaches of, and enforcing, Commonwealth laws.

These powers will only be available in relation to a regulatory scheme if the governing legislation triggers or engages the powers provided in this bill. These powers can be triggered in whole or in part, depending on the requirements of the particular scheme.

The monitoring provisions provide a framework for agencies to monitor whether legislation is being complied with. They also provide agencies with the power to monitor whether information given in compliance, or purported compliance, with a law, is correct.

The investigation provisions provide a framework for gathering evidence that relates to the contravention of offences and civil penalty provisions. These powers include the power to search premises and seize evidential material, and to inspect, test, or copy evidential material.

There are also monitoring and investigation powers for operating electronic equipment and securing electronic equipment to obtain expert assistance.

The bill also provides a framework for the use of civil penalties, infringement notices, enforceable understandings and injunctions.

Over the last 20 years there has been an enormous proliferation of regulatory powers and associated provisions, across the Commonwealth statute book. These powers and provisions vary in their breadth and detail, resulting in inconsistency or unnecessary duplication across regimes.

This creates an unnecessary compliance burden for businesses subject to scrutiny or supervision by multiple regulatory regimes. Current inconsistent regulatory regimes require businesses to incur legal costs and face increased risk as they struggle to understand the applicable regime, let alone the differences between them.

Further, the inconsistency and duplication of powers makes it difficult for agencies to perform their functions where they may exercise powers across several regimes with different governing legislation.

Provisions relating to the enforcement of a regulatory regime can easily increase the length of legislation by 30 pages, and by up to 80 pages for some regimes.

The bill will be rolled out in three stages. In stage 1, new laws that require monitoring, investigation or enforcement powers of the kinds available under the regulatory powers bill will be drafted to trigger the relevant provisions.

In stage 2, laws that have been drafted over recent years using precedents based on the regulatory powers bill will be amended to remove those provisions and instead trigger the relevant provisions of this bill.

In stage 3, monitoring, investigation and enforcement regimes in current laws may be reviewed and amended to instead trigger the relevant provisions in the regulatory powers bill.

Over time, the amount of duplication between these laws will be significantly reduced.

The powers contained in this bill will not be suitable for all regulatory regimes. Specialised powers will continue to be needed, for example, by law enforcement and security agencies which deal with national security or serious and organised crime.

Importantly, the key safeguards of parliamentary scrutiny will be maintained, as the powers in the bill are rolled out across regulatory regimes. The primary legislation which governs a scheme will need to trigger the powers in this bill. These legislative amendments will provide parliament with the opportunity to scrutinise the suitability of powers in the particular context in which it is proposed that they be exercised.

This also means that an assessment of the human rights implications will be undertaken each time a bill proposes to apply provisions of the regulatory powers bill. This will require consideration based on the context of the particular scheme and the specific provisions that are triggered.

There are also operational safeguards included in this bill.

Entry to premises can only be authorised by informed and voluntary consent, or by judicial authorisation. If entry has been granted by consent, and that consent is subsequently withdrawn, the agency must leave the premises.

If entry is authorised by warrant, the agency must make a copy of the warrant available to the occupier of the premises, and provide them with written notification of their rights and responsibilities. This includes the right for the occupier to observe the execution of the warrant.

The bill also provides for the courts to have sufficient oversight to ensure against the risk of abuse or the arbitrary exercise of power by an agency.

Where an infringement notice is issued, a person may elect to have a matter heard by a court rather than pay an infringement notice. This right must be set out in the infringement notice issued to the person.

Significantly, the bill also preserves fundamental common law privileges. Individuals who are subject to these powers must be informed of their rights and responsibilities, and will continue to have the right to refuse to answer a question or produce documents if doing so would tend to incriminate them or waive legal professional privilege.

The regulatory powers bill is an important step in streamlining the Commonwealth's regulatory frameworks, and in doing so, improving the accessibility and consistency of these laws.

This will make it easier for individuals and businesses to know and understand their rights and responsibilities and be able to more readily comply with the law. This will reduce legal costs and risks, promote greater access to justice and reduce the regulatory burden on businesses that are subject to multiple regimes.

This bill will also ensure that Commonwealth regulatory powers are sufficiently certain and predictable, while being flexible, to ensure that agencies with specialised functions can operate effectively.

Debate adjourned.