Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I table revised explanatory memoranda relating to the Crimes Legislation Amendment (International Crime Cooperation and Other Measures) Bill 2018 and the Family Assistance and Child Support Legislation Amendment (Protecting Children) Bill 2018 and I move:

That these bills be now read a second time.

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

Leave granted.

The speeches read as follows—

AGRICULTURAL AND VETERINARY CHEMICALS LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY) BILL 2017

Agricultural chemicals and veterinary medicines—or agvet chemicals—are essential to our quality of life. We all know that these chemicals protect our crops and animals from pests and diseases, and underpin the productivity and competitiveness of Australia's farmers. However, agvet chemicals also have a range of other uses, including protecting our health, managing domestic pests and fulfilling consumer needs. Agvet chemicals are used to control vermin and pests in food premises, kill flies and mosquitoes around our houses, preserve timber, control fouling of boat hulls and keep our swimming pools safe. These chemicals are also vital for keeping our pets healthy and protecting our environment from invasive weeds and animals. The regulation of safe and effective agvet chemicals is therefore of interest to all Australians.

Through a cooperative scheme with the states and territories, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority—the APVMA—is the national regulator of agvet chemicals. The APVMA ensures that agvet chemicals used in Australia are safe for people, animals, plants and the environment.

Legislation underpinning the APVMA and agvet chemical regulation was developed in the early 1990s. A detailed review of the whole legislative framework is overdue. The government announced in April that it would undertake such a review and the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources is currently developing terms of reference for this important piece of work.

In the meantime, the chemical industry has made it clear that there are simple, non-controversial changes that could be done now that improve the efficiency of the regulator and increase the speed to which farmers can get access to safe effective chemicals. We are heeding these calls.

The Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Legislation Amendment (Operational Efficiency) Bill 2017 amends agvet chemical legislation to streamline industry reporting and support the operational efficiency of the APVMA. The Bill also clarifies some ambiguities in the legislation and removes unnecessary and redundant provisions.

This Bill reduces some of the unnecessary regulatory burden on industry by simplifying reporting requirements for chemical products. The amendments in the Bill ensure that industry continues to provide necessary information about registered chemicals in the marketplace but reduces the time and effort that industry require to collect this information.

Essentially, the Bill removes the need for industry to undertake two unrelated reporting activities—one for levies, based on chemical product sales, and a more complex reporting activity on active constituent quantities. It simplifies and aligns these reporting processes based on the quantity and value of product sales. This significantly reduces reporting costs for industry without compromising the availability of information for our international reporting obligations and policy development needs. The chemical industry has been seeking changes to the burdensome reporting requirements and the Bill delivers these changes.

The role of the regulator is to ensure that the safe agvet chemicals we need are available in a timely fashion. The Bill therefore includes measures to improve the administrative efficiency of the APVMA and promote quicker access to chemical products. The measures in the Bill reduce the handling time for applications by increasing the APVMA's flexibility when dealing with errors in applications and for altering applications.

Other measures in the Bill enable the holder of a label approval to vary a label approval while this approval is suspended. This removes an administrative barrier that currently prevents the holder from addressing the reasons for the suspension. This will ensure that the issue with a label approval that led to its suspension can be appropriately rectified at the holder's request.

To perform its role as a regulator the APVMA has to rely on information provided to it by applicants. The Bill includes civil penalty provisions for providing false or misleading information. These provisions provide a broader suite of sanctions than currently available to the APVMA for dealing with any false or misleading information that may be provided to it. This is important as it will provide the APVMA with the necessary tools to proportionately respond to any false or misleading information it receives. Industry understands the importance of increasing the range of compliance options available to the APVMA.

Further measures in the Bill clarify the meaning of the expiry date for a chemical product and allow applicants to address minor errors identified during preliminary assessment of an application, without having to go through the whole application process again.

Stakeholders have confirmed that the Bill will deliver tangible benefits to industry and the regulator.

Collectively, the measures in the Bill will reduce regulatory burden on industry and allow the regulator to be more efficient, while ensuring safe and effective agvet chemicals continue to be available to the community.

The government will continue to work with industry to implement further improvements to agvet chemicals regulation through future legislation and administrative reform.

CRIMES LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (INTERNATIONAL CRIME COOPERATION AND OTHER MEASURES) BILL 2018

The Government is committed to ensuring Australia's criminal justice framework is as strong as it can be—striking the right balance between protecting fundamental rights while ensuring justice is served. We are committed to ensuring our law enforcement and justice agencies have the requisite powers to appropriately contribute to the fight against crime at home and abroad.

To that end, we keep our criminal justice framework under constant review—our agencies, policies, laws and processes—to ensure that we have a regime in place that is well equipped for the job of tackling crime.

The Bill about which I speak today—the Crimes Legislation Amendment (International Crime Cooperation and Other Measures) Bill 2018—is an another example of our efforts in this respect. It is a comprehensive Bill—eleven schedules in length—which contains a range of measures that will strengthen the Commonwealth's already robust criminal justice arrangements.

The Bill will enhance Australia's position globally in the fight against crime, making improvements to our international crime cooperation arrangements and our ability to assist international courts and tribunals.

It will make amendments to the Commonwealth's Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act to both strengthen that regime and make reporting requirements within it more flexible.

It will amend the AusCheck Act to bolster the government's ability to address serious risks, such as national security and safety risks, related to large-scale events of a national character.

The Bill will also enhance the Commonwealth's anti-human trafficking and slavery regime and the protections afforded to vulnerable witnesses within our criminal justice system.

The Bill will make minor amendments to streamline the annual reporting processes under the War Crimes Act.

The Bill also contains minor consequential amendments to facilitate the use of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission as an alternative name for the Australian Crime Commission.

The Bill also enhances the Australian Federal Police's drug and alcohol testing arrangements, enabling it to maintain the integrity of its entire workforce and enforce its zero-tolerance policy regarding illicit drug taking. It also provides the AFP Commissioner with the power to approve an extension to defer resignation in cases of serious misconduct or corruption. The Government amendments moved in the House of Representatives relating to these measures strike the appropriate balance between transparency and fairness, and legitimate law enforcement integrity measures.

I don't propose elaborating in detail on all of the measures I have just outlined that are contained in the Bill. I would, however, like to draw attention to some of the more significant measures.

International crime cooperation measures

As many of us here appreciate, international crime cooperation is an essential part of fighting crime in Australia and across the world.

Australia needs to ensure that criminals cannot evade prosecution or profit from crime because the evidence or proceeds of their crimes are in different countries, or because they can move easily across borders.

Amendments in the Bill will ensure Australia can respond effectively to requests for assistance from foreign countries and international bodies, in accordance with our international obligations. They will also ensure that the rules on adducing foreign material in Australian proceedings apply consistently throughout Australia. The amendments have been identified from practical experience and will provide certainty in the operation of key provisions.

Specifically, the Bill will enhance Australia's ability to assist international courts and tribunals. These bodies are responsible for investigating and prosecuting individuals accused of committing the most serious crimes of concern to the international community, including the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The Bill will align the assistance Australia can provide to the International Criminal Court and international war crimes tribunals with the assistance we can provide in

criminal matters to foreign countries. Australia's authority to provide assistance to these bodies is currently more limited than our capacity to assist foreign countries. The Bill will permit forensic procedures, surveillance activities and telecommunications information to the international bodies.

The assistance would be subject to the same processes that currently apply to the assistance provided to foreign countries and to similar safeguards that apply to the use of these powers for foreign and domestic law enforcement purposes.

The Bill will also amend Australia's mutual assistance regime, to enhance the assistance that Australia can provide in response to a mutual assistance request from a foreign country in a criminal matter.

These amendments will ensure that proceeds of crime investigative tools in the Mutual Assistance Act align with those in the Proceeds of Crime Act. They will also modify provisions in the Proceeds of Crime Act appropriately for the foreign context.

The amendments will also clarify the types of foreign proceeds of crime orders for which mutual assistance can be provided and confirm that the Mutual Assistance

Act applies to interim foreign proceeds of crime orders that are issued by non-judicial government bodies.

The Bill will also amend the Extradition Act to ensure that judicial officers and relevant courts have sufficient powers to order the remand of a person in an appropriate facility to await extradition following a surrender decision. This will improve the operation of the extradition process and assist Australia to meet its international extradition obligations.

Finally, the Bill will also make amendments to the Foreign Evidence Act. These amendments will ensure consistent application of the rules relating to foreign evidence throughout Australia.

They will provide a process to certify material received from a foreign country in response to a mutual assistance request in terrorism-related proceedings. This will ensure that the certification is prima facie evidence of the fact of such receipt.

Vulnerable witness protections

I would also like to highlight the Bill's proposed enhancements to the Commonwealth's existing vulnerable witness protections.

The Government is committed to supporting and protecting vulnerable witnesses giving evidence in Commonwealth criminal proceedings.

The amendments will ensure the existing offence of identifying child witnesses or vulnerable adult complainants also extends to child complainants.

The Bill will also amend relevant legislation to clarify that the protections afforded to vulnerable witnesses apply to future criminal proceedings, regardless of when the alleged offence occurred.

In relation to the Commonwealth's human trafficking and slavery offences, the Bill seeks to broaden the definition of 'debt bondage'. It will also expand the relevant evidence that may be taken into account in determining elements of human trafficking and slavery-related offences.

Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing amendments

In respect of the Commonwealth's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing framework, the Bill makes several amendments. Firstly, to allow travellers departing Australia to electronically report cross-border movements of physical currency—currently, travellers who are carrying $10,000 or more in cash

must provide a written report at a specific time and point. The proposed amendments will maintain existing reporting requirements, but provide the necessary flexibility to ensure that a new digital form can also be used.

The Bill will also list the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission—the ACNC—as a designated agency under the AML/CTF Act. This will enable the ACNC to access financial intelligence information to assess money laundering and terrorist financing risks associated with charities that register with the ACNC. In turn, this will enable the ACNC to better detect, monitor and halt money laundering, terrorist financing and other criminal activities involving ACNC-registered entities.

AusCheck Act amendments

Finally. I would like to mention the AusCheck Act amendments.

These will enable AusCheck, a business unit within the Department of Home Affairs, to conduct and coordinate background checks in relation to major national events such as the Invictus Games.

These amendments will enable the government to prevent persons who pose serious risks, such as persons of national security concern, from working or volunteering at major national events and contributing to serious incidents.

The amendments will provide the responsible Minister with a power to declare a major national event by legislative instrument. They also permit regulations to be made in relation to the conduct and coordination of background checks for a major national event.

The term 'major national event' is intended to capture a type of event that is of such a large scale and national character that it would benefit from the coordination of security and other arrangements by the Commonwealth. Some examples of events that, if held in Australia, could be characterised as major national events include the Invictus Games, the G20, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting and major international sporting events. In declaring an event as a major national event the responsible Minister must be satisfied that it is in the national interest that the Commonwealth be involved in the conduct and coordination of background checks in connection with the accreditation of individuals in relation to the event.

Using the established AusCheck scheme for these purposes will ensure that the background checks can be facilitated through established mechanisms, which are well supported by technical channels and legal frameworks.

Conclusion

Australia's criminal justice framework is both fair and strong. But it never serves to be complacent. Where opportunities present to fine-tune aspects of our regime, we take these up. This Bill is another example of just that.

FAMILY ASSISTANCE AND CHILD SUPPORT LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (PROTECTING CHILDREN) BILL 2018

The Turnbull Government is committed to supporting families and protecting the health and wellbeing of all children. The Family Assistance and Child Support Legislation Amendment (Protecting Children) Bill2017 acts on this commitment by improving the child support scheme to ensure it operates in the best interests of Australian children, and strengthening incentives for families to immunise their children.

Schedule 1 - Child support amendments

Schedule 1 of this Bill introduces a range of improvements to the child support scheme, which supports more than 1.3 million separated parents and 1.1 million children, to ensure that it is operating in the best interests of Australia's children. This will help separated parents to understand and meet their responsibilities for the costs of raising their children, in line with their individual capacity to do so.

The changes address the three priority recommendations of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs report – Fromconflicttocooperation:InquiryintotheChildSupportProgram.These are areas where the current policy was identified as leading to outcomes that are inconsistent with the objectives of the child support program, or required parents to undertake onerous court or administrative processes. The Government committed $12.4 million in the 2017-18 Budget towards implementing its response to these three priority areas.

Part 1 of Schedule 1 of this Bill amends the child support and family assistance legislation to provide better outcomes for parents in dispute about their children's care arrangements, addressing Recommendation 8 of the Inquiry report.

From the day after this Bill receives Royal Assent, the 14-week interim period that applies before child support and Family Tax Benefit (FTB) are recalculated to reflect a change in actual care will be extended to up to 52 weeks if the disputed care change occurs within the first year of a court order. For older court orders, the interim period will be extended to up to 26 weeks if the person with increased care does not take reasonable action to participate in family dispute resolution.

This extension of the interim period strengthens the incentive for parents to comply with court orders and appropriately discourages parents from withholding the care of a child from another parent or carer where that particular care arrangement has been ordered by a court to be in the best interests of the child.

For care arrangements in a non-enforceable written agreement or parenting plan, the interim period will remain at 14 weeks where the disputed care change occurs in the first year after the agreement or plan is made. For older agreements or plans, where the person with increased care participates in family dispute resolution, a shortened four-week interim period will apply.

These amendments to the interim period provisions are designed to strengthen incentives to comply with court orders or participate in dispute resolution processes about care, which is in the best interests of the children.

Part 2 of Schedule 1 of this Bill will amend child support legislation to allow amended tax assessments to be taken into account for child support purposes in a broader range of circumstances in line with Recommendation 12 of the Child Support Inquiry report.

From the day after this Bill receives Royal Assent, an amended tax return will always be taken into account in a child support assessment if it results in a higher taxable income. This means parents won't be disadvantaged if the other parent has understated their income, no matter how long it takes for them to correct their original tax return.

An amended tax return that results in a lower taxable income will be used where a change in child support is sought within 28 days of receiving their original tax return, within 28 days of becoming aware of an error or if special circumstances apply.

These amendments will allow a parent's true taxable income to be more easily reflected in their child support assessment, without having to estimate their income or apply through the Change of Assessment process, and will also help to ensure that separated parents are taking responsibility for the costs of raising their child in line with their capacity to do so.

Part 3 of Schedule 1 of this Bill amends child support legislation to make it easier and simpler to set aside child support agreements in certain circumstances, also in response to Recommendation 12 of the Committee's report.

From 1 July 2018, to provide greater fairness to parents who entered into agreements prior to 1 July 2008 (known as transitional binding agreements), the Government is introducing a separate and less restrictive test for a court to set aside the agreement where one of the parties did not obtain legal advice.

In addition, for all child support agreements, this Bill introduces provisions that will terminate or suspend the effect of the agreement from 1 July 2018, if the person who is entitled to child support for a child under the agreement ceases to be an eligible carer of the child – that is, where the person's percentage of care for a child falls below 35 per cent.

The two policy changes in response to Recommendation 12 will enable changes in circumstances to be more easily reflected in child support assessments without parents having to go to court or through onerous administrative processes, both improving and simplifying the child support scheme to better support families.

Part 4 of Schedule 1 of this Bill amends child support legislation to create greater equity in the collection of child support debts and overpayments. These amendments, to apply from 1 July 2018, are being made in response to Recommendation 22 of the Committee's report.

The Government is expanding the methods available to recover a child support overpayment from a payee, to align with the current methods available for recovering child support debts from payers. The Government is also expanding the basis upon which an overpayment is recoverable to ensure that all backdated reductions to a child support assessment, which had previously been collected by the Department of Human Services (DHS) on behalf of the payee, will be recoverable by DHS. However, new backdating provisions will provide a fairer basis for retrospectively creating a child support overpayment or arrears.

Overall, the policy changes in Schedule 1 will help to ensure correct outcomes and improve the administration in around 90,000 -100,000 child support cases each year.

Schedule 2: Family Tax Benefit Amendments

The Turnbull Government is also committed to helping more Australian children become immunised. Since the Government introduced the No Jab, No Pay policy on 1 January 2016, national immunisation rates have increased across all three target groups of one, two and five year olds, and more than 238,000 children and their families have taken action to ensure that their children now meet the immunisation requirements.

Immunisation coverage rates for one and five year olds have reached more than 93 per cent (as at September 2017). This is nearing the critical level of 95 per cent to provide what's known as herd immunity – when large numbers of individuals are immune to disease and chains of infection are disrupted, stopping or slowing the disease. This is vital to protecting children and the wider community, particularly young babies who are not yet fully immunised and other people who cannot be vaccinated from preventable diseases, such as whooping cough.

As part of the 2017-18 Budget, the Government provided $14.1 million over four years for ongoing catch-up vaccines for almost 375,000 Australians aged 10 to 19 years, and more than 8,000 adult refugees and humanitarian entrants.

The Government has also provided $5.5 million over three years to encourage Australian parents and carers to vaccinate their children. The campaign will specifically target areas of low vaccination rates by addressing myths and misconceptions, while explaining the benefits of childhood vaccinations for both the individual and the community.

Schedule 2 of this Bill will strengthen current immunisations incentive measures to ensure that from 1 July 2018, children must meet immunisation and health check requirements as a prerequisite for families to be eligible for their full fortnightly entitlement to Family Tax Benefit Part A.

Currently the No Jab, No Pay and Healthy Start for School policies link the Family Tax Benefit Part A end of year supplement for each child to meeting immunisation and health check requirements. The new measure will replace this incentive and serve as an immediate and constant reminder for parents to immunise their children and access a health check for their four year old children on time. The new measure will also ensure that all Family Tax Benefit families, irrespective of income, continue to have a clear financial incentive to immunise their children.

Under the new rules, if a child does not meet the immunisation or health check requirements, their fortnightly Family Tax Benefit Part A will be reduced by around $28 per fortnight. Over the course of a year, this is the same value as the current end of year supplement.

Should a child not meet their immunisation requirements, families will have 63 days to meet the immunisation requirements. This grace period gives parents enough time to comply with the immunisation requirements even if they experience a delay in vaccinating their child, for example, due to illness. It also aligns with the 63 day grace period provision to meet immunisation requirements to receive child care payments.

This Bill also makes technical amendments to the NewTaxSystem(FamilyAssistance)Act1999 (the Act) in regards to immunisation requirements, including:

medical exemption provisions in relation to the approved form and manner in which an application for a medical exemption from immunisation requirements may be made. This change will further enhance the integrity of the measure and help ensure that only legitimate cases qualify for an exemption; and

to ensure that immunisation requirements for Family Tax Benefit Part A continue to apply after the introduction of the Turnbull Government's Child Care Subsidy on 2 July 2018. This change demonstrates the Government's commitment to the removal of any possible loopholes or opportunities for groups and individuals to compromise the continued success of its immunisation measures.

The Government considers there is no excuse for parents who, for no valid medical reason, choose not to immunise their children. These parents are not only putting their own children's health at risk, but the health of every other person's children at risk as well.

Parents will still have the right not to vaccinate their child. But a family's choice not to immunise their children is not supported by this Government. Nor should such action be supported by taxpayers in the form of family payments.

If that's the choice they make, they are putting their child and the community at risk of infectious diseases, and they will no longer be eligible to receive their full fortnightly Family Tax Benefit Part A payment.

This Bill also makes a further technical amendment to the Actto ensure that from 1 July 2018, the Family Tax Benefit Part A income test applies as intended to all recipients subject to an income support employment income nil rate period.

Conclusion

This Bill prioritises the protection of Australian children and I commend the Bill.

FINANCIAL SECTOR LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (CRISIS RESOLUTION POWERS AND OTHER MEASURES) BILL 2017

There are few greater threats to the economic wellbeing of the Australian people than a financial crisis. Financial crises have the ability to devastate an economy, leading to mass unemployment and plunging asset prices. In a crisis, credit markets may seize up, meaning no loans for home buyers or small businesses. This would have a severe effect on the wellbeing of ordinary Australians.

Today, the Turnbull Government is putting in place a far-sighted framework to protect Australians against an uncontrolled financial collapse in the future.

Australia has avoided a severe financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s and has not experienced a recession for more than 26 years. While good fortune played its part in those outcomes, it can mostly be attributed to prudent economic management, in particular of our financial system during the most recent world economic crisis. The strong budget surpluses accumulated by the Howard Government had paid off debt, ensuring we had the firepower on the Commonwealth balance sheet to navigate the crisis.

Even more importantly, Treasurer Costello implemented reforms recommended by the Wallis Financial System Inquiry, establishing the twin peaks system of our financial regulation. This forward thinking structure proved to be world's best practice during the crisis – we had a prudential regulator in APRA that shepherded our major financial institutions away from the worst excesses that we saw overseas. APRA's excellent supervision and robust capital requirements meant Australian institutions navigated the crisis relatively unscathed. In short, the Howard Government and Treasurer Costello in particular, took the tough decisions during the 'good times' which meant the Australian economy survived the 'bad times'.

The Turnbull Government is taking the same approach. Prudent fiscal management is working to repair the budget.

We are also responding to the Murray Inquiry into our financial system, established after the Coalition took office in 2013. The Murray Inquiry followed in the footsteps of the Wallis Inquiry, making key recommendations to enhance the stability of the Australian financial system. In July, the Government welcomed APRA's initiative to ensure that capital levels at Australian banks are 'unquestionably strong', in response to the first recommendation of the Murray Inquiry.

The Government will continue to support APRA's efforts to ensure that the Australian financial system is resilient. The resilience of the financial system is the first line of defence against financial crises.

The Murray Inquiry also recommended that Government implement appropriate crisis management powers over banks and insurers. This Bill does just that.

These powers will ensure that APRA can effectively prepare for and manage a crisis should it befall one of our banks or insurers.

The prudent time to strengthen crisis resolution powers is when the financial system is healthy. As we've seen - you need to put the effort in during the good times to be ready for the difficult times. The Government has done the necessary heavy lifting, from the work of the Murray Inquiry through to the substantial volume of legislation I introduce today.

This Bill will significantly enhance APRA's crisis resolution powers.

There are two core themes for this Bill.

The first theme is enhancements to the resolution planning framework. Resolution planning refers to the process of banks and insurers working with APRA to ensure they are ready for stress events. APRA already puts considerable effort into resolution planning, but the legislative framework does not give APRA clear powers to make prudential standards for resolution. We are addressing this gap.

Done right, resolution planning will substantially reduce the cost to the taxpayer of a stress event. It leads to the best chance of a private sector solution, or an orderly resolution of the entity. Orderly resolutions reduce the risk of contagion leading to a runaway crisis of confidence in the institutions.

The second theme is resolution powers. Resolution powers are the financial system equivalent of a defence force. You never want to have to use them, but if you need to, you want them to be powerful and flexible.

Australia's powers are starting from a reasonable base. APRA can already take control of a failing bank or insurer when needed, and this Bill further enhances these powers. However, larger banks and insurers tend to be part of a complex financial group. Group entities will often house critical services, like staff or infrastructure. To ensure an effective resolution, APRA needs to be able to either direct or take control of all of these necessary group entities. This Bill makes amendments to the legislative framework to ensure that is the case.

International experience has shown that the role of directors and senior officers of a distressed institution is critical. A crisis can put these individuals in difficult legal circumstances, where the regulator's attempts to institute a resolution may conflict with 'peacetime' legal obligations. This Bill ensures that APRA's resolution actions should be considered paramount, and directors and senior officers will be protected when pursuing these directions in all reasonable circumstances.

This Bill also improves APRA's ability to manage a foreign bank branch or insurance branch that is in distress.

Large institutions also tend to have a wide ranging amount of complex legal arrangements with sophisticated counterparties. These arrangements often contain 'default' provisions which allow counterparties to break or 'close out' their position with the distressed institution. Regulators need to be able to 'stop the music' – in other words – to buy time to institute an effective resolution strategy. This Bill ensures that APRA is able to freeze the rights of counterparties of a financial group in appropriate circumstances to carve out the time necessary to effect a resolution. This is achieved in a way which preserves, to the extent possible, the certainty of counterparties when dealing with Australian banks and insurers.

This Bill makes a number of technical amendments that ensures the machinery of government operates as intended during a resolution event. This includes technical enhancements to the operation of the Financial Claims Scheme and the efficacy of the legal framework for the conversion of capital instruments under the Basel III frameworks. These mechanical fixes will increase efficiency and certainty in the event of a crisis.

Taken together, these themes represent a significant leap in APRA's capability as a resolution authority, accompanying its traditional core role as a prudential supervisor. They will ensure that Australia's regulatory infrastructure is in line with international best practice.

Whilst Government will continue to do everything in its power to avoid financial crises, we are taking the prudent step of safeguarding the system for the wellbeing of current and future generations.

Full details of the measure are contained in the explanatory memorandum.

INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION MEASURES BILL 2017

The Investigation and Prosecution Measures Bill 2017 makes two sets of amendments:

Telecommunications (Interception andAccess) Act1979Surveillance Devices Act2004

[Independent Commission Against Corruption (New South Wales)]

The Independent Commission Against Corruption plays a critical role investigating, exposing and preventing corruption in the public sector.

In November 2016, the New South Wales Parliament passed the Independent Commission Against Corruption Amendment Act2016. That Act restructured the Commission by replacing the former arrangement of a single Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner with a full-time Chief Commissioner and two part-time Commissioners. Assistant Commissioners may also be appointed as required.

The measures in the Bill will make minor amendments to both the Telecommunications (Interception andAccess) Act1979 and the Surveillance Devices Act2004, to ensure that the re-structured Commission is referenced properly in those Acts.

The Act will retain the Commission's substantive powers under those Acts.

[Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979]

The Telecommunications (Interception andAccess) Act1979 provides the legal framework for specified intelligence and law enforcement agencies to access communications and data for the investigation of criminal offences and other activities that threaten safety and security.

It permits eligible law enforcement and security agencies, including the Commission, to obtain warrants to intercept communications, to obtain warrants to access stored communications and to access telecommunications data, subject to stringent legal tests and independent oversight.

The Telecommunications (Interception andAccess) Act1979 vests certain positions within the Commission specific authority when undertaking functions. The Chief Commissioner will, for example, be able to authorise members of the Commission to receive information gathered under warrants and communicate intercepted information obtained by the Commission to other agencies in limited circumstances. The amendments will allow the Chief Commissioner, a Commissioner or an Assistant Commissioner to be certifying officers under the Act. Certifying officers can, for example, be delegated the power to revoke interception and stored communication warrants, certify true copies of warrants and issue evidentiary certificates.

[Surveillance Devices Act 2004]

The Surveillance Devices Act2004 governs the use of optical surveillance devices, listening devices, data surveillance devices and tracking devices by law enforcement agencies. The Act complements the relevant surveillance devices laws of the states and territories by allowing law enforcement agencies such as the Commission to obtain surveillance device warrants to help investigate federal offences and state offences with a federal aspect.

The Surveillance Devices Act2004 vests certain positions within the Commission specific authority when undertaking functions under the Act. These provisions ensure that authorisations are valid and that persons authorised under the Act to undertake those functions can exercise their prescribed functions legally.

The Chief Commissioner will, for example have the power to revoke surveillance device warrants, and authorise executive level officers to be authorising officers. Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners will also be designated as authorising officers under the Bill. Authorising officers may, for example, issue emergency authorisations for the use of a surveillance device, authorise the use and retrieval of tracking devices without warrant in certain circumstances and issue evidentiary certificates.

[Conclusion]

This Bill will ensure that the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption is able to continue its valuable work, and can access the investigative tools it needs to support its functions.

[Norfolk Island – Director of Public Prosecutions Act 1983]

On 1 July 2015, the Australian Government took over responsibility for delivering local, state and Commonwealth services on Norfolk Island, which are proportionally equivalent to services which benefit mainland Australians.

As part of this process, it was important to review prosecution arrangements in order to align those services with those available on mainland Australia and other external territories.

The measures in the Bill will allow the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions to take over prosecutorial and related functions in relation to the laws of Norfolk Island. This will ensure prosecutions against the laws of Norfolk Island are dealt with by a professional and independent prosecution services with significant expertise.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the bills be listed on the Notice Paper as separate orders of the day.