Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My constituents in Forrest—and every Australian—need to have confidence that when a Commonwealth department contacts them it is actually that department doing the contacting. If an individual or a group pretends to be Medicare, Centrelink, the ATO, the department of immigration or any other Commonwealth department body or organisation, that person or group will be charged. It is illegal. That is what this law is about. So the next time someone decides to send out text messages during an election campaign—or at any other time—and impersonates a Commonwealth department, deliberately scaring the most vulnerable people, that individual will be charged for doing so. To those with malicious intent or scammers pretending to be from a Commonwealth department: it will be against the law, once this law passes, to impersonate Centrelink, the Department of Defence and the Australian Taxation Office.

There are over 2.1 million aged pensioners in Australia. Those people would be particularly worried to get the types of email or texts they received during the campaign. It was a dreadful time and very worrying for many people. This Labor's famous 'Mediscare' campaign impersonated a Commonwealth department, deliberately scaring the most vulnerable people. It will be against the law, once this law is passed, whether it be a scammer or someone with malicious intent, to impersonate Centrelink—or veterans affairs or immigration. It is really important. We saw—graphically—this infamous 'Mediscare' campaign during the 2016 election. Thousands of text messages were sent, supposedly, from Medicare. Of course, they weren't; they were from the Labor Party.

Why is this so important?

One of the great protections in our system of government is that, when people come into contact with a government institution, they need to be able to have the faith and confidence and trust that the people they're talking to or dealing with are in fact government officials. It is a really key part of confidence in our democratic process. That's why this bill is so important. We already have laws relating to impersonating a Commonwealth official. This is an extension of that to impersonating a Commonwealth body. It covers the situation where it's not just a Commonwealth official being impersonated but an entire Commonwealth organisation as well. We did see this, as I said, during 'Mediscare'. It was very clear from those text messages with 'Medicare' at the top that it was deliberately misleading. It was certainly Labor who did it.

This bill will amend the Criminal Code Act 1995 to safeguard the Australian public from misrepresentations and false statements purportedly made on behalf of Commonwealth bodies. The Turnbull government condemns the impersonation of Commonwealth bodies, as I do personally. I see it as well with scammers. We saw this was a giant scam and a giant con. We're committed to strengthening public confidence in communications from all government departments and bodies.

This bill introduces new criminal offences, as it should, and an injunction power to prevent people from impersonating a Commonwealth body. The measures will ensure that the Australian public, pensioners, people on lower incomes and anybody who is likely to receive this type of message, sent deliberately with an intent to convince them that it's a Commonwealth body when it is not, will have confidence that those people are acting against the law. People need to have confidence in the legitimacy of communications from government agencies. It helps to safeguard the proper functioning of government.

People shouldn't take what happened lightly. We haven't. That's why this legislation is here. It is essential to a well-functioning democracy that people in Australia have absolute trust in the legitimacy of statements made by government agencies. Trust is inevitably eroded if people are able, with impunity, as we saw, to misrepresent themselves and communicate on behalf of a government or a government organisation or body without any authorisation.

Accordingly, this bill introduces new offences to criminalise conduct where a person falsely misrepresents themselves to be acting on behalf of or with the authority of a Commonwealth agency, as happened in the 'Mediscare' campaign. For the purposes of the new offences, a Commonwealth body would be a Commonwealth entity, a Commonwealth company or any service, benefit, program or facility—it covers the broad spectrum—provided by or on behalf of the Commonwealth. The offences will capture false representations in relation to a broad range of government bodies and services, from the Attorney-General's Department through to Centrelink and Medicare. Just think of where else we could see this type of campaign running. A scammer could claim to be from Regional Development Australia. Perhaps the Child Support Agency or the Department of Social Services or Human Services will be the next one. The list is significant.

We saw the disgraceful use of messages that really confused with the legitimate messages from the Commonwealth during the 2016 election campaign. Those messages were sent out to people in the community encouraging them to vote a certain way, based on a falsehood. That's what it was. It took advantage of a loophole in the current law on impersonating the Commonwealth or its officials. There were pensioners receiving text messages about the government's policy on Medicare. It was blatantly false. They were spread maliciously in order to achieve an electoral advantage. That gap is being covered by this law. It is already a criminal offence to impersonate a Commonwealth official. This takes that even further.

I am particularly pleased, given the work I've done in the online space, that this will cover scammers as well because we frequently see scams where people send a false invoice pretending to be from the ATO. This law will cover those people as well. Today, on Safer Internet Day, the people who are prone to this sort of behaviour had better be aware: this law will cover you, too, if that's what you're doing. The bill introduces offences to ensure that the punishment reflects the person's state of mind in making the false representation where a person intends that, or is reckless as to whether, their conduct will result in or is reasonably capable of resulting in a false representation. It will be punishable by up to two years imprisonment. The amendments also create a new aggravated offence where a person falsely impersonates a Commonwealth body or service with the intent to gain, cause a loss, or influence the exercise of a public duty. The more serious and deliberate nature of this conduct warrants an increased maximum penalty of five years imprisonment—as it should. These penalties are commensurate with offences for impersonating a Commonwealth official. The bill contains safeguards to ensure that neither of these offences unduly limits the freedom of expression—equally as important.

The bill also enlivens the injunction provisions in the Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act 2014, providing persons whose interests have been or would be affected by the false representation the opportunity to prevent such conduct through a court-issued injunction. This is particularly important online. The issues around the online space are immediate, global—

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Important on election day, too.

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Very important on election day. The bill will enable affected persons to apply to a relevant court for an injunction to prevent conduct in contravention of the new offences in the Criminal Code. As I'm reminded, it's important to note that the purpose of this power is to enable affected persons to act swiftly—as you need to, particularly online, and you saw that with the 'Mediscare' campaign; there needed to be an immediate and effective response—to prevent conduct amounting to false representation of a Commonwealth agency, which is what we saw. It was very cleverly targeted, unfortunately, at the most vulnerable. These amendments are critical to protecting Commonwealth bodies from what is and will be criminal misrepresentation—and it should be. It should be against the law to misrepresent a Commonwealth agency or body. The amendments will ensure that the public—those people out there who elect us to this place—can have confidence in all forms of communication that come from the Commonwealth government.

The people who live in our electorates take it very seriously when they get any form of communication claiming to be from a government agency. They take it seriously and they need to have confidence that that's who it's actually coming from. That's why this law is so important. We're committed to safeguarding the proper functioning of Australia's democracy—that's what this is about; it's not about anything other than safeguarding our democracy. Trust is so critical. Australian people need to have trust in the validity of communications from our Commonwealth bodies. After all, if you can't trust a Commonwealth body, who can you trust? That's what people say to me. They need to have that level of confidence, and we here are the guardians of that trust. That's why we take it so seriously, and we do, and why I'm very pleased to be speaking on this bill. This bill will strengthen public confidence in all such communications. Just as importantly, it will ensure that those who deliberately deceive the Australian public are ultimately captured by the law. What a great result that will be. I commend the minister for bringing the legislation to the House. It is important legislation. I commend the bill to the House. I'm pleased that my colleagues are here to support that endeavour.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When I spoke on the Electoral and Other Legislation Amendment Bill last July I said, 'I'll be back,' and now I'm pleased to finally be able to fulfil that promise. I'm proud to be part of a government that passed that bill, and now I'm determined to be part of a government that sees through the second crucial plank of this reform.

After hours of debate, we know what this legislation, the Criminal Code Amendment (Impersonating a Commonwealth Body) Bill 2017, will achieve. In short, it will make it clear that it is a criminal offence in Australia to impersonate a Commonwealth entity and will give affected parties the right to secure an injunction to prevent such an impersonation—crucial on election day. It will also introduce a maximum penalty for this offence of two years imprisonment or five years in circumstances of aggravation. But before this debate got underway we all knew that this legislation was necessary, because we all knew that impersonation of Commonwealth bodies does occur. We know that it occurs when it can have the most corrosive effects on our democracy, especially during our national election campaigns. Members opposite, in particular, know that that occurs. They know that their party and their friends in the union movement are among the nation's leading perpetrators of this kind of impersonation.

During the 2016 federal election, an older lady came up to me at a polling booth and she asked me: 'Andrew, what are you going to do? Are you going to take Medicare away from us?' She wanted to vote for this government, for the coalition government, and its vision for Australia, but not if we were going to take away Medicare. When I told her the truth, that we would not be selling or privatising Medicare, she was willing to vote for the coalition government. But why did she think the Turnbull government was going to privatise Medicare, despite the Prime Minister's repeated assurances to the contrary? She believed that Medicare would be sold, because that's what she was told. She thought Medicare would be privatised by the coalition government. In Queensland, text messages from a phone number that identified itself on recipient's phones as 'Medicare' read:

Mr Turnbull's plans to privatise Medicare will take us down the road of no return. Time is running out to save Medicare.

But it was not Medicare that sent that text; it was in fact the Labor Party. It's hard to think of a clearer case of an organisation impersonating a Commonwealth entity.

This impersonation was assisted by the friends of members opposite in the ACTU. The ACTU distributed one million replica Medicare cards which suggested that voters should preference the Liberal Party last and lied about the Turnbull government's proposed policies. How do I know it was a million? Because the ACTU crowed about it in a media release. These cards didn't just bear a passing resemblance to a Medicare card, didn't just look a bit like a Medicare card; they were identical do a Medicare card—the same green colour, the same Medicare watermark, the 10-digit code, the font and the validity date. Most damning of all, the Medicare logo was used without any permission, obviously, from the federal government. Is it any wonder that little old lady constituent of mine thought that Medicare was going to be privatised by the government? This is a clear case of impersonation and it can't be allowed to happen again.

Let's face it, the Leader of the Opposition, members opposite and their union mates don't need any more help to spread lies about the government and its healthcare policies. They were doing a pretty comprehensive job of that before they started impersonating Commonwealth entities. During the last election the ACTU sent voters in marginal electorates robocalls suggesting that a Turnbull government would reduce access to Medicare, while women over the age of 65 were targeted with late-night phone calls repeating the same lies. Meanwhile Labor ran TV campaigns with the completely baseless claim that the Prime Minister wanted to privatise Medicare.

In case there is anyone in the country who is left in doubt, who has not yet seen through this rank dishonesty, let's take a second to review the Turnbull government's actions on Medicare since the election. This government is spending more on Medicare than ever before: $23 billion in 2017. Under Labor it was $19½ billion. This government restored the indexation of the Medicare rebate after the now Deputy Leader of the Opposition froze it in 2013. That restoration began in July last year and included the retention of bulk-billing for pathology and diagnostic imaging. In 2013 we saw the highest-ever GP bulk-billing rate for a March quarter: 85.6 per cent.

So, we know that Labor and the unions will happily impersonate Medicare during an election in the pursuit of their dishonest political agenda. What we don't know is what's next. Impersonating a Commonwealth entity was the last stage in a 'Mediscare' campaign that began with simple, old-fashioned misrepresentations. What other impersonations might we see in the future, without this law? Will Labor and the unions perhaps impersonate the Department of Education and Training? In that regard, too, their lies and misrepresentations have in fact already started. At the end of April 2017 the Leader of the Opposition claimed that the government was making $500 million in cuts to TAFE. In fact, there were no cuts to the TAFE budget. Rather, there was an additional $360 million a year in the budget to fund 300,000 more apprenticeships. Apprentice numbers, in contrast, collapsed under the Leader of the Opposition when he was a minister. In May 2017 the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, standing next to her leader, claimed that the government was going to cut $22 billion out of the education budget over the decade—a disgraceful line that she continues to push to the media, right up to this week. As we know, the Turnbull government is actually committing $23½ billion in extra funding during that period.

Will Labor or the unions perhaps impersonate the Fair Work Commission? Once again, the misrepresentations have already begun. The ACTU said in March 2017 that nurses, teachers and disability workers were all at risk of having their penalty rates cut following the Fair Work Commission decision. They weren't, as the commission themselves said and as has proved to be the case. Not long after that, ACTU President, Ged Kearney, said that the independent umpire had never before reduced people's pay, in 100 years. In fact, they had done so twice in the past decade alone. And of course we all remember 'Trent the Battler', supposedly a worker, presented by Labor, who was supposedly gutted by the Fair Work Commission's decision. In fact, he was a union delegate who was completely unaffected—a Labor member. It could be others. Their track record in the Department of Veterans' Affairs, the ABCC and many other agencies is consistently dishonest.

It is ironic that this Leader of the Opposition started the year suggesting that he wants to introduce a federal ICAC—a national integrity commission. Purportedly, it would be set up by a man who, without doubt, was present when the dishonest 'Mediscare' campaign was created. This is a Leader of the Opposition who has never apologised for the Labor Party's impersonation of Medicare. The Leader of the Opposition is the same man who fought tooth and nail to stop the Heydon royal commission. He called it politically biased and claimed it was a witch-hunt. He's the same Leader of the Opposition whose evidence to that commission was described as evasive and whose credibility as a witness was called into question by the commissioner himself. Is this the man we want setting the terms of reference for a national integrity watchdog? I don't think so.

We all know that that sort of conduct Labor and the unions indulged in at the last election is wrong. I suspect that members opposite would even agree with that themselves. After all, when the Minister for Human Services' office discovered that ACT Labor had been distributing replica Medicare cards and asked that they cease, it took nine minutes for ACT Labor to apologise and promise to stop. If even ACT Labor can tell that this is wrong, why can't the Leader of the Opposition and the Australian Labor Party? As parents, we all tell our kids that honesty is the best policy. How, then, can Labor get away with these fabrications?

If we do not pass this legislation, there is every reason to believe that Labor and the unions actually intend to continue this kind of conduct. ACTU's secretary, Sally McManus, was, after all, in a previous role, the architect of the 'Mediscare' campaign. She was rewarded for her base achievement by being promoted to secretary. She believes, as is well known, that obeying the law is optional for unions, and she appears to believe the same about telling the truth. In May 2017, she said, in a column in TheSydney Morning Herald and The Age, that 2.3 million Australians earn minimum age. At the time, it was actually 196,300. That's a fabrication by more than a factor of 10. In March 2017, she said, of CFMEU law breaking, that it was done quite often when a worker was killed on a building site, when, of the 47 matters that were then before the courts relating to illegal action by the CFMEU, not one was in direct response to a workplace fatality.

Labor has never apologised for the 'Mediscare' campaign. In fact, exactly the same lies about 'Mediscare' continued in the recent Bennelong by-election and will, no doubt, be repeated in the Batman by-election. The Leader of the Opposition in the House has already suggested that they intend to take a number of their current scare campaigns all the way to the next federal election.

We know that this legislation is necessary now and so does the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, which wrote:

The committee considers that impersonating or purporting to act on behalf of a Commonwealth officer, or an entity, is unacceptable and that steps should be taken to ensure that neither occurs in future.

Everyone, with the exception of the Leader of the Opposition, would agree that we need this legislation, just as we need the Electoral and Other Legislation Amendment Act. We cannot allow a repeat of the outrageous dishonesty and deception that we saw in the 2016 election. We must act now. For that reason, I commend the bill to the House.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank all the honourable members for their contribution to the debate on the Criminal Code Amendment (Impersonating a Commonwealth Body) Bill 2017. Criminal misrepresentation of Commonwealth bodies requires, clearly, an immediate response to protect the integrity of Australia's democratic system of government. By amending the Criminal Code Act 1995, people will be prohibited from falsely representing themselves to be or to be acting on behalf of a Commonwealth body. This bill promotes public confidence in representations that come from Commonwealth bodies and, by doing so, safeguards the proper functioning of government. The bill introduces new criminal offences to criminalise the impersonation of a Commonwealth body. The amendments will cover false representations in relation to a wide range of government bodies, including Commonwealth departments such as the Attorney-General's Department, Commonwealth corporations such as the NBN Co Limited and Commonwealth services such as Centrelink and Medicare.

The bill contains relevant safeguards to ensure that the offences do not unduly limit freedom of expression, and exemptions are available for conduct that is engaged in for genuine satirical, academic or artistic purposes. With respect to injunction powers, there is recognition that there is often a need to be expedient in addressing issues of false representations, and the bill also introduces for this purpose a new injunction power. The power would enable affected persons to apply to a relevant court for an injunction to prevent conduct in contravention of the new offences in the Criminal Code. An injunction power provides an option to swiftly prevent the conduct in contravention of the new offences.

By way of conclusion, the Australian government condemns the impersonation of Commonwealth bodies. It is essential to a well-functioning democracy that the public can trust in the legitimacy and accuracy of statements made by the Australian government. It is clearly appropriate that we, as parliamentarians, give the Australian public the confidence to trust in communications emanating from Commonwealth bodies, and the new offences contained in this bill are a necessary and proportionate measure for ensuring this confidence. The bill ensures the protection of the Australian public from criminal misrepresentation of Commonwealth bodies and further safeguards the integrity of the Australian system of government.

The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee has considered the bill and has recommended the bill be passed without amendment, and the government accepts this recommendation. The Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills and Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights have also considered the bill, and the committees reported no scrutiny or human rights reservations. I would like to thank these committees for their consideration of the bill. I would also like to assure the House that, consistent with these reports, the bill contains appropriate measures balanced by appropriate safeguards.

I don't intend to reiterate some of the submissions that have been made with respect to the behaviour that this bill is meant to outlaw and which has occurred previously, save to note this fact before committing the bill to the House: I understand that Labor do not oppose—in fact, they support—the passage of this bill. The passage of this bill would criminalise the conduct which the Labor Party engaged in, which has become known as the 'Mediscare' campaign. The Labor Party are, in fact, now acknowledging that that campaign should have been and should in the future be criminal. On that basis, I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.