Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I am just getting for you the list of serious offences. I'm sure the advisers are looking for me, to ensure that I do have them. In particular, I will look at exactly what we're looking at targeting. As you'd know, the 'dark web' refers to areas of the internet which are intentionally hidden and cannot be accessed without using specialised browsers. I think you'd also know that, because of the nature of the dark web, this area of the internet is not indexed by ordinary search engines. 'Anonymising technology' refers to technology which can be used to disguise a person's activity, location and true identity. The types of 'serious crimes' include child abuse and exploitation, terrorism, and the sale of illicit drugs and weapons. We're referring to that there. Warrants can only be sought in relation to what is called a relevant offence. This is a federal offence or a state offence that has a federal aspect punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of three years or more. That criterion is consistent with existing thresholds for warrant powers as set out in the Surveillance Devices Act 2004.

I have some further information for you: amendments have been made to the issuing criteria for warrants to ensure that, when considering whether to issue a warrant, issuing authorities give extra weight to the most serious types of cyber-enabled crime, which is what you were referring to. This reflects the purposes of the bill and the PJCIS's intent to focus the use of these powers—and I go back to the original answer that I was giving to you—on the most serious crimes perpetrated on the dark web and through the use of anonymising technologies. Again, as I've referred to previously, this includes child exploitation, terrorism, cybercrime, money laundering and drugs and firearm trafficking.