George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Matters) Bill 2008, which has the support of the opposition, proposes to make three minor amendments in the Australian Federal Police Act 1979, the Crimes Act 1914 and the Crimes (Aviation) Act 1991. None of the amendments are controversial; rather, they update outdated legislation or fix minor administrative oversights in the acts as they stand.

By the first of the amendments, 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 1970. The penalty was inadvertently repealed by the Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner (Consequential Amendments) Act 2006. The re-enactment of the penalty is retrospective to when it was repealed so as to ensure that any convictions related to offences of this nature in the past two years do not escape punishment.

By the second of the amendments, the bill seeks to alter the timing of the second review into part ID of the Crimes Act 1914—that is, the collection and use of DNA material by Commonwealth law enforcement agencies. There was a review into this matter in March 2003, and the legislation required that a second review take place two years later, in March 2005. This did not take place, as interjurisdictional DNA matching between most states and territories, as well as the Commonwealth, has only been in place since mid-2007. It is argued that, for a review to be fully effective, it is desirable for a body of cases to have progressed from matching to investigation to trial so that there has 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.

By the third of the amendments, the bill seeks to ensure that the ACT Criminal Code is applied to flights originating or terminating 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 formally 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 ACT criminal law.