Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Crimes Amendment (Penalty Unit) Bill 2017 on behalf of the opposition. At the outset, I indicate that the opposition will be supporting this bill. This bill implements a Labor policy from the 2016 federal election to increase the value of a penalty unit. Penalty units are the metric that we use to set the maximum fines that can be imposed for Commonwealth offences, such as fraud, firearms offences, drug offences, white-collar crime and workplace crime. By increasing the value of a penalty unit, this bill will increase the pecuniary penalty for all Commonwealth offences.

It was the Keating Labor government that first introduced the penalty unit in 1992. When it was first introduced, the value of a penalty unit was set at $100. Since then, successive governments have updated the value of the penalty unit. It increased to $110 in 1997, $170 in 2012 and $180 in 2015. This bill will increase the value of a penalty unit from $180 to $210, which will be indexed every three years to CPI. This higher value will apply to offences committed after these amendments come into force.

Strong penalties are an important way we deter crime. This is why this increase to the value of a penalty unit was one of our election policies. Labor believes it is important that our penalties are not weakened as the cost of living increases. But strong penalties are meaningless if crimes are not detected, investigated and prosecuted. This week we found that the government has cut over $184 million from the Australian Federal Police over the next four years. Because of these enormous cuts, the AFP will lose over 150 personnel next year, with many more cuts to come as they struggle to make up for the funding shortfall. This government likes to talk a tough game on law and order, but it is Labor that proposes smart policies and it is Labor that resources our law enforcement agencies. Labor is committed to keeping Australians safe. The Labor policy that this bill implements reflects this commitment, so I reaffirm that the opposition will be supporting this bill.

David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Crimes Amendment (Penalty Unit) Bill 2017. The major parties want to increase your taxes and they also want to increase fees and fines. Their desperation to take more and more of your money knows no bounds. Today, the major parties are waiving through the Senate increases in fines that will rake in an extra $90 billion of your money over the next three years. Fines will be increased by 17 per cent, far in excess of inflation, since the last increase in fines two years ago.

Today's increase in fines overrides existing indexation arrangements, which adjust fines every three years in line with inflation. The next adjustment is not due until 2018. It is an ad hoc increase that undermines our legal integrity. When the parliament has introduced fines into the law, it has done so with the view that the fine matches the offence and that the punishment fits the crime, but, with the passage of this bill, fines will be harsher than the parliament intended. I encourage the courts to take this into account when they next impose a fine. I oppose this bill.

Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.