Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

This bill was drafted in 2006, introduced at that time and subsequently dealt with. I am not sure if APEC was in the minds of the drafters of this bill. Perhaps it would be worth while for the minister to answer that point, because, as I understand it, the Greens amendment seeks to take out the whole of schedule 1—that is, to take out effectively what has been around for some years now as a power that is available to the Australian Federal Police to work with states. It relates to a controlled operation, which is defined as a:

… covert or overt activity which would normally be unlawful, but for which immunity is provided for the purposes of securing evidence of serious criminal offences.

It came—I will add a bit of history here—from model legislation which was published in 2003 in the report Cross-border investigative powers for law enforcement. The intent of the legislation is to harmonise as closely as possible the controlled operations regime across Australia. The removal of schedule 1 would leave a serious hole in the ability of the Commonwealth to work with the states on serious crime. If that is the intent of the Greens then not only can I not agree with the position they have put but I also criticise them, in taking this opportunity to remove schedule 1, for not being serious about fighting crime—cross-border crime particularly—through the use of powers that have been available for some time. If there are elements of schedule 1 that the Greens disagree with then this is the appropriate place to debate them, but to use this opportunity to say that you do not want controlled operations powers that have been around for some time misses the point of allowing our law enforcement officers sufficient powers to conduct their investigations and to fight crime.

The bill covers the spectrum of controlled operations and defines the method of authorisation required for each. There is a regime in place that deals with how the controlled operations should be undertaken and dealt with. I will not go into the detail of that, but I think it is important to at least highlight the gulf between Labor and the Greens on this matter. Notwithstanding that the power has been around for some time, that it has been brought forward to harmonise with the states, that it came from a report back in November 2003 and that it is ensuring that the Commonwealth can deal with cross-border crime in an effective way with the relevant controls and safeguards in place, the Greens are taking the opportunity of seeking to remove that power completely, which would leave the Commonwealth unable to deal with controlled operations on a cross-border basis. On that basis alone, I find the Greens’ position extreme and I am not able to agree with it.