Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Emergency Management) Share this | Hansard source

I table the 2023-24 annual reports of the Judge Advocate General and the Director of Military Prosecutions. I move:

That the Senate take note of the documents.

Today the government is tabling the Defence Force Discipline reports, comprising the Judge Advocate General Defence Force Discipline annual report 2023 and the Director of Military Prosecution annual report 2023. The reports provide an update to parliament on the operation and application of the Defence Force Discipline Act 1982 and associated legislation. As has been the case in previous reports, these reports make a series of reform recommendations. Annual reports are provided to the parliament to inform public understanding, debate and consideration of issues. They are not provided to government as a mechanism for policy change.

What is clear here, though, is a longstanding gap in the military justice system between the operation of state and territory jurisdictions and military jurisdiction when it comes to the recording of convictions, a gap which this government wishes to see closed. When members of the Australian Defence Force are convicted of a serious service offence through the military courts, those convictions are not reflected on their civilian criminal history records. While most serious criminal offences involving military personnel are dealt with by civilian courts in the criminal justice system, the military justice system routinely deals with service offences that should be reflected in criminal records, including sexual and violence based offences. The government sees no reason why, in 2024, someone who is tried and convicted of serious offences in the military justice system, including acts of indecency and intimate image abuse, should not have those convictions recorded in the same manner as civilians.

By not recording a conviction on a civilian record, we are falling short of society's expectations and Defence's values. This is why the Minister for Defence directed Defence to engage with the Attorney-General's Department and the Judge Advocate General to develop a policy and establish a pathway for reporting certain service convictions to an authority of the Commonwealth or of a state or a territory for purposes connected with investigating, prosecuting or keeping records in relation to offences against laws of the Commonwealth, the state or the territory. This is an issue which we have been aware of and engaged on since coming to government. The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide final report recommended we address this as a matter of urgency. It is not a simple undertaking, but it is the right thing to do.

I can advise the Senate that the Minister for Defence has recently agreed to that policy and the pathway to implement it. Defence is working with the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission on the disclosure of reportable service offences through the national police reference system. This decision is about futureproofing Australia's military justice system to empower it to hold personnel who come before it to the same standards that would be applied under civilian systems. It will ensure that service convictions society would expect to appear on a criminal history record will apply to members of the ADF, even once they leave the Defence Force.