Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That these bills be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

AUSTRALIAN CRIME COMMISSION AMENDMENT (NATIONAL POLICING INFORMATION) BILL 2015

AUSTRALIAN CRIME COMMISSION (NATIONAL POLICING INFORMATION CHARGES) BILL 2015

CrimTrac and the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) are two of Australia's most important national law enforcement bodies, created to provide police with access to national policing information and intelligence. Both agencies are shared national assets that reflect the cooperative approach between jurisdictions that is central to Australia's response to crime.

The Australian Crime Commission Amendment (National Policing Information) Bill—or the Merger bill—implements the historic decision of all of Australia's attorneys-general, police and justice ministers to bring CrimTrac and the ACC together under one banner.

This bill forms a package with the Australian Crime Commission (National Policing Information Charges) Bill, which will allow the merged agency to continue the self-funded model that has supported CrimTrac's services for over a decade at no cost to the budget.

The merged agency would be supported by a new intergovernmental agreement to ensure that it maintains a focus on providing national information systems to police, as CrimTrac currently does.

These systems and services are critical to supporting day-to-day policing and the investigation of all forms of crime, from terrorism to street crime to drug trafficking to domestic violence.

Australia has first-rate police and intelligence agencies that are highly capable, professional and committed to protecting the community.

We need to make sure that these agencies continue to have access to the tools and information they need to do their job.

Merging CrimTrac with the ACC continues this government's commitment to ensuring Australian law enforcement agencies are in the best possible position to protect us from criminal and national security threats.

A merger will enrich the ACC's critical intelligence function with direct access to CrimTrac's national police information holdings and sophisticated information technology capabilities.

This will improve the quality, access and timeliness of the intelligence that the merged agency provides to law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Improved intelligence will better equip these agencies to detect and disrupt significant threats, such as terrorism, international drug trafficking and cybercrime.

Key measures

The Merger bill contains a number of amendments to give effect to the proposed arrangements for the merged agency.

Primarily, the Merger bill amends the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002(ACC act)to enable the merged agency to carry out all of CrimTrac's functions. These functions will be referred to as 'national policing information' functions under the merged agency structure. This includes making national information sharing systems available to police and providing nationally coordinated criminal history checks.

The Merger bill will also change some of the merged agency's governance arrangements. Currently, the ACC and CrimTrac are both governed by boards. Following a merger, there would be a single board overseeing the merged agency.

The amendments enable the board to set high-level priorities for the merged agency's new national policing information functions. They also provide the board with additional, specific functions currently exercised by the CrimTrac Board.

Amongst other things, this includes making recommendations to the relevant Commonwealth minister about expenditure from the National Policing Information Systems and Services Special Account.

The Special Account was established under the Howard government to support CrimTrac to develop and maintain new and existing information sharing systems for Australia's police forces.

These amendments will ensure that state and territory police commissioners will continue to play a key role in decisions that directly affect their agencies.

The Merger bill will also make changes to the merged agency's information disclosure regime. These ensure that the merged agency can continue to share national policing information, in the same way as CrimTrac currently does, and provide nationally coordinated criminal history checks to a range of stakeholders.

Continuing the CrimTrac funding model

CrimTrac is entirely self-funded through revenue generated primarily from criminal history checks. This has allowed CrimTrac to provide services to police and the community at no cost to the budget.

The measures in these bills will ensure the continued financial security of policing information services.

The Charges bill will allow the merged agency to impose charges for certain services, in order to fund or subsidise the provision of other services to police and the community.

This reflects CrimTrac's current arrangements, where criminal history checking provides most of the funding for other services. However, the bill will also enable the merged agency to charge for new services in the future, should the board consider this desirable. This will ensure that the business model can adapt to meet emerging police and government needs.

The Charges bill will create a mechanism to allow the minister to specify in a legislative instrument the services that the merged agency will charge for, who has to pay the charges, and the amount of each charge.

This provides the merged agency with the flexibility to impose different charges for different classes of persons, such as reduced charges for volunteers seeking criminal history checks.

The Merger bill will provide a mechanism for the board, which comprises representatives from each jurisdiction, to make recommendations to the Commonwealth minister regarding these charges. This reflects the national nature of the merged agency and its national information holdings.

The Merger bill will also allow the merged agency to charge fees on a cost recovery basis for discrete services, separate to the revenue mechanism in the Charges bill.

The revenue that CrimTrac currently generates accrues into the National Policing Information Systems and Services Special Account.

This allows revenue generated by CrimTrac to be kept separate from other Commonwealth funds and readily invested in national policing information services.

The Merger bill will continue the Special Account, set out the funds that must be credited to the account, and the purposes for which the Account may be debited.

These provisions ensure that the Special Account will continue to support the provision of information sharing systems and services to police.

Consistent with this, the merged agency will only be able to use the Special Account for CrimTrac-type, national policing information purposes.

Conclusion

These bills implement an important merger of Australia's two key law enforcement information and intelligence agencies. The merged agency will be better able to fulfil its role as Australia's national criminal intelligence agency, supporting and informing the efforts of law enforcement agencies around Australia.

At the same time, the merged agency will continue to provide nationally coordinated, high quality information technology systems and services to Australian police, which are critical to supporting day-to-day operations.

Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Australian Crime Commission Amendment (National Policing Information Bill) 2016 and the Australian Crime Commission (National Policing Information Charges) Bill 2016, which will be debated as a package.

The purpose of the Australian Crime Commission Amendment (National Policing Information Bill) 2016 is to amend the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002 to merge CrimTrac and its functions into the Australian Crime Commission and make consequential amendments to other acts.

The purpose of the Australian Crime Commission (National Policing Information Charges) Bill 2016 is to provide a legislative basis for the ACC to charge for national policing information services. This package of bills is intended to implement a decision by the Law, Crime and Community Safety Council, on November 5 last year, that the Commonwealth take steps to merge the ACC and CrimTrac. The minister has stated that this merger unites:

Australia's national criminal intelligence and information capabilities under one banner.

I quote:

… having a unified resource would enrich the national understanding of criminal activity, including volume crimes (such as domestic violence) and serious and organised crime and terrorism—

this—

would allow police, justice agencies and policy makers at all levels of government to adopt a more effective, efficient and evidence-based response to crime.

Under the proposed merger CrimTrac will carry its functions over to the ACC, including its function of providing nationally coordinated criminal history checks. The CrimTrac board of management and the position of CrimTrac CEO will be abolished.

CrimTrac was established in 2000 under an intergovernmental agreement—an IGA—between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments to enhance Australian law enforcement, with an emphasis on information based policing facilitated through rapid access to detailed, current and accurate police information. The services CrimTrac provides include the National Police Checking Service criminal history checking, the National Child Offenders System—comprising the Australian National Child Offender Register and the Managed Person System—the National Police Reference System and the National Firearms Identification Database.

By providing access to information collated from police records around the country, CrimTrac aims to minimise opportunities for people to cross state borders and evade laws. The IGA establishes the broad objectives of CrimTrac and a board of management with representation from all jurisdictions.

I note that at 12.45 the Senate will be moving on to other business. I do want to note that I think this is an important piece of legislation. I think it is the type of legislation we should be spending more time debating and working on as a Senate. I do think it is unfortunate that the arrangements that have been made by the government as to the order of legislative business will perhaps mean that this bill will not be able to be fully debated and fully considered in the lead-up to the election. It is disappointing that a bill of this importance and significance has not been placed higher on the government's legislative agenda.

Debate interrupted.