Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I take this opportunity to table a supplementary explanatory memorandum. I move government amendment (1) on sheet BN204:

(1)   Schedule 1, item 32, page 10 (after line 27), after subsection 219ZAB(2), insert:(2A)Any equipment prescribed under subsection (2) must be configured so that the equipment's use, when carrying out an internal non-medical scan, is limited to that necessary to produce an indication that a person is or may be internally concealing a suspicious substance.

This bill will amend the Customs Act to enable Customs and Border Protection officers to undertake, with consent, an internal search of a person suspected, on reasonable grounds, to be internally concealing a suspicious substance using body scan technology. Currently an internal search of a person can only be carried out by a medical practitioner at a place specified in regulations, such as a hospital or surgery. The bill will allow, with the consent of the detainee, an initial non-medical internal X-ray scan of a person to be carried out by Customs and Border Protection officers using new body scan technology that produces a computer image of a person's cavities within a skeletal structure. In considering the bill, the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills was of the view that the principle of appropriately limiting equipment capacity should be included in the primary legislation. This government amendment creates a requirement in the primary legislation that equipment used for an internal non-medical scan must be configured so that its use is limited to that necessary to produce an indication that a person may be internally concealing a suspicious substance. Where the body scan image supports a suspicion of internal concealment, the existing regime governing an internal search by a medical practitioner will then apply.