Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

CRIMES LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS) BILL 2008

Today I will be introducing the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Matters) Bill which contains three minor but important criminal law amendments. However, I would like to begin by giving some broader context for this bill.

This is the first criminal law bill I have brought before the federal Parliament. I look forward to bringing forward many more, including a victims rights package and federal sentencing reforms. Each of these larger packages will be the subject of extensive public consultation.

In the mean time, there are some minor amendments that I felt needed to be pursued as a matter of priority. These are contained in this bill.

The first amendment will re-insert the maximum penalty of two years imprisonment for the secrecy offence in subsection 60A(2) of the Australian Federal Police Act 1979. The penalty provision was inadvertently repealed by the Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner (Consequential Amendments) Act 2006. The amendment does not alter the elements of the offence in any way but simply re-inserts the penalty which was previously in the provision before being inadvertently repealed.

The penalty for the offence is being inserted retrospective to when the penalty was repealed. This is important as the prohibition for the secrecy offence continued to be in force even though there was no penalty for it. It should not be the case that individuals can escape punishment simply because of the inadvertent repeal of the penalty.

The second measure is an amendment to Part ID of the Crimes Act 1914. Part ID of the Crimes Act deals with the collection and use of DNA material by Commonwealth law enforcement agencies. Part ID also set up the National Criminal Investigation DNA Database as a platform to facilitate the matching of DNA profiles across Australian jurisdictions. The bill will amend section 23YV of the Crimes Act so that the second review of Part ID must commence no later than 1 November 2009 instead of March 2005.

As Part ID deals with the National DNA Database, it is important that any review is able to properly analyse the Database’s operation. In early 2005, the Database was still only partially operational. If the review was conducted at that time, it would not have been better placed than the first review to analyse the operation of the Database. Commencing the review by November 2009 will allow time for the Database to be fully operational when the review takes place. If the Database is not operating effectively at that point, the second review will be able to analyse why the Database was not being used effectively nine years after its establishment.

As a result, the review will be able to assess trials which have involved DNA matching. The review will also be able to assess the adequacy of safeguards and any issues that have arisen in court proceedings. The review will also analyse the implementation of the recommendations from the first review in 2003.

The final amendment is to the Crimes (Aviation) Act 1991 which governs crimes and other acts committed on aircrafts, or, in airports or related facilities. Section 15 of the Crimes (Aviation) Act is intended to ensure that standard ACT criminal laws apply on Australian flights. However, the current reference to ACT laws in the Crimes (Aviation) Act is out of date. Currently, only offences contained in the ACT Crimes Act 1900 apply on flights, while those in the ACT Criminal Code 2002 do not.

The amendment will ensure that both the ACT Criminal Code and the ACT Crimes Act apply to conduct on relevant flights. The amendment will also introduce a regulation making power into section 15 of the Crimes (Aviation) Act. This will provide flexibility in the event of future changes to ACT criminal law.

In summary this bill contains three minor but necessary measures to ensure Commonwealth criminal law legislation is kept up to date.