Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I only partly heard what Senator Ludwig mentioned, but I can confirm what Senator Joyce has mentioned—that is, that the coalition has already distributed an amendment to the Great Barrier Reef act calling upon those convictions to be dealt with as spent convictions under the Crimes Act. When that amendment comes before this chamber, it will enable senators to require that the convictions recorded no longer remain on the record. It is a fairly complex matter. It is the only thing that, I am told, can be reasonably done at law if the government refuses to give pardons as we were hoping it would.

I raised this matter at some length during the May estimates committee hearings with the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. I received a very useful response from the Secretary of the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts indicating that there would be no impediment to the government’s administration of the act if pardons were to be given or if those previous convictions were to be wiped off the slate. Indeed, new arrangements now provide that, for similar offences for which these people were originally convicted, the penalty is simply an on-the-spot ticket without any recording of a criminal conviction. The recording of a criminal conviction prevents many of those who have these convictions from getting a visa to enter the United States.

Prior to the election Senator Kerry O’Brien—who I see is fortuitously sitting in the chamber now—made a commitment on behalf of the then opposition that, if the Labor Party were elected, they would follow the Howard government’s commitment to introduce legislation to negate the impact of these convictions. So the amendment to the bill which the coalition will be moving when it comes before the chamber will give Senator O’Brien, all members of the Labor Party and, indeed, all senators in the chamber the opportunity of putting into effect the commitment made by the Howard government before the last election—a commitment mirrored by the Labor Party—to remove from the record the convictions of those who had had them recorded.

I mentioned that, in estimates in May, I raised this not only with the environment minister but also with the Minister representing the Attorney-General and the Minister for Home Affairs and I was told by the official there that pardons could be given—not would be given, I emphasise, to be fair, but could be given—but it was really an issue for the environment department. Having then sought at the next estimates hearing that assurance from the environment department that it would not really impact on the administration of that particular legislation, I had hoped that the Labor Party may have by now bitten the bullet, so to speak, and introduced some scheme to allow those convictions to be expunged from the record. As I mentioned, it is something that I know Senator Boswell, Senator Joyce, Senator Trood and others of my Queensland colleagues have been working on for over a year now and that will come to fruition when the bill comes before the chamber and the amendment is then dealt with. I thank the Senate for allowing me the indulgence.