Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the opposition to support the second reading of the Australian Crime Commission Amendment (Special Operations and Special Investigations) Bill 2022. The bill amends the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002 to provide greater certainty regarding the powers of the board of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, otherwise known as the ACIC, to authorise special ACIC operations and special ACIC investigations.

The ACC Act establishes the ACIC board to make determinations authorising the ACIC to undertake special ACIC operations or special ACIC investigations. However, the existing provisions in the act include key definitions which cross-refer to other definitions that are central to the process for making determinations. This layering of definitions adds unnecessary complexity to the process in making determinations. The bill addresses this issue by repealing the current definition of 'federally relevant criminal activity' in section 4(1) and replacing it with a new definition of 'federally relevant crime'. The current definition of 'relevant crime' in section 4(1) is also amended. These changes reduce the multilayered definitions that currently exist, which add unnecessary complexity. The bill also makes some minor consequential amendments to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement act 2010 and the Telecommunications (Interception and Access Act 1979.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, which was formerly known as the Australian Crime Commission, performs, without a doubt, a vital function of our law enforcement agencies. State and commonwealth agency heads come together to form the board, which provides input and directions around special operations and special investigations. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission does excellent work in looking at some of the incredibly serious systemic criminal issues that occur here in Australia. It is also given extraordinary powers, and of course we should always be apprehensive and cautious that, when we give agencies particularly coercive powers, we are doing it for a very good reason. It has certainly been evidenced by the performance of the commission over a number of years now that these powers that they have are extremely important and do assist the commission in undertaking some of its special operations and investigations. These investigations have been, as we know, into some very significant areas within, for example, drug trafficking, issues with the migration system and issues with organised crime, to name but a few.

Without a doubt, the opposition want to support the Australian Crime Commission, now known as the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, which is what the bill before us does. What it does is to ensure that the proper legislative framework is in place for the commission to continue its activities. I have outlined the areas in which they undertake this work: drug trafficking, issues with the migration system and, in particular, issues around organised crime. They need to be properly equipped with the powers to tackle these issues. We need to ensure that particularly in 2022—and in fact we're looking forward to 2023—they have the proper legislative framework in place for them to continue the important work they do, with important oversight and restraint of power.

Coercive powers are very significant because in some cases they provide evidentiary discovery capacity well beyond what could actually be admissible in a trial—things like compelling the giving of evidence and not allowing for the right to silence. Some of those issues may or may not come up at another time in debate on another bill regarding corruption. These powers that are given to the ACIC inform the work that they do and allow them to stop the bad criminal activity that occurs in our nation. So, where it is justified and appropriate and, on top of that, we have the proper protections and safeguards in place, we accept the need for that and we are happy to support improving the legislative framework.

In particular—we're in 2022, looking forward to 2023—where new forms of criminal enterprise and activity may be identified, new technology provides an opportunity for criminal activity that was not envisaged within the original legislation. Due to that, we find ourselves in a situation where the proper powers are not necessarily now in place for entities like the ACIC to do the job that we so desperately need them to do. We as a parliament should always be responding to that and making those changes, and, of course, we need to be comfortable with them and we need to ensure they are reasonable and legitimate. In the case of this bill, the opposition believes that these changes are appropriate and that they do support the ACIC to do the work that they need to do in the modern world that we live in. On behalf of the opposition, I commend the ACIC on the work that they do. The opposition commends the bill to the chamber.

David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the Greens to indicate that we won't be opposing the Australian Crime Commission Amendment (Special Operations and Special Investigations) Bill 2022. This is a bill to amend the Australian Crime Commission Act and to provide greater certainty, but really it is just procedural amendments and drafting amendments with respect to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission board's powers to authorise special ACIC operations and special ACIC investigations.

Special ACIC operations and investigations are tools used by the ACIC to obtain information that the ACIC determines would not be able to be obtained without the use of those coercive powers. Those powers have primarily been used to collect, assess and then disseminate to state and territory policing and intelligence agencies intelligence and policing information about serious and organised crime—the intent being to have a kind of national picture of the threat to Australia from organised crime. We know, from a series of responses we've had from the ACIC in estimates and in the oversight committee, that, overwhelmingly, organised crime in this country is funded by illegal drugs. In the most recent oversight committee hearing with the ACIC, the ACIC estimated that the illegal drug market in the country is some $10.4 billion, which doesn't include the illegal cannabis market. They didn't really have a grip on the size of the illegal cannabis market. That $10.4 billion plus is often filtered through real estate agents, lawyers, poker machines and casinos and it is the primary source of illegal funds for organised crime in this country.

The ACIC has now, for a numb and er of years, been reporting on its success in disrupting the illegal drug market, primarily using the special operations and special investigations tools that are the subject of this bill. It's unfortunate to say that it hasn't been successful. I think in the last two years the ACIC's intelligence was—in part, at least—responsible for the seizure of approximately $1.4 billion worth of illegal drugs in each year. That's the street value. Of course, by the end of each year, that had made absolutely no difference to the availability or price of illegal drugs in the country. That is because of the obscene profits that are made by organised crime through the sale of illegal drugs in this country. In the evidence that they gave to the committee just last week, the ACIC's estimation was that cocaine, for example, in South America costs about $1,000 a kilo, but the sale price here when organised crime lands cocaine and sells it in Australia is somewhere between $180,000 and $250,000 a kilo. With that kind of mark-up, if organised crime loses 10 per cent of the cocaine and other drugs that they bring into the country, it's not even noticeable in terms of their end-of-year profits.

For all of the work that the ACIC does, for all of the integration that they do with state and territory police and for all of these coercive powers, when it comes to the primary industry they're seeking to disrupt, they have proven incapable, and they will continue to prove incapable given that gap between the cost of these drugs and precursor chemicals on the black market internationally and the price that's obtained by organised crime selling them in the country. The model that we have now and the war on drugs are fundamentally not working, and the ACIC's results, notwithstanding substantial effort and investment, are proof that the war on drugs is not working in this country.

When it comes to the specific provisions of this bill, we have separately satisfied ourselves that it makes no harmful changes to the oversight of special operations and special investigations. It would be fair to say, though, we haven't been assisted by the information provided in the second reading speech on behalf of the government or in the explanatory memorandum. To quote from the explanatory memorandum:

The Bill makes clearer the process for the Board to make and frame determinations to undertake a special ACIC operation or special ACIC investigation. It does this by reducing the multi-layered definitions that exist in the ACC Act, simplifying the determination drafting process and making the determinations easier to understand. The amendments ensure that the Board can continue to make the necessary determinations to authorise special ACIC operations and special ACIC investigations to occur .

That sheds more darkness than light on what the bill does. Unfortunately, that is the nature of the explanatory memorandum and the contributions we've gotten from the government behind this bill. But, as I've said, we have separately satisfied ourselves that it does no harm. It does appear to provide some marginal streamlining and clarity for how these special investigations and operations are authorised. To the extent that there's greater clarity about how these coercive powers are authorised, we hope that will provide for greater opportunities for the law to be followed in the letter and the spirit, and for those reasons we don't oppose the bill.

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank colleagues for their contributions to the debate on the bill. The measures in the bill are certainly technical in nature. They enhance confidence, certainty and trust in the authorisation process for the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission's work and the board's capacity to determine special crime intelligence commission operations and special investigations. The measures are essential to ensuring that the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission is able to fulfil its statutory functions as Australia's national criminal intelligence agency without interruption. The bill will support its capacity to continue to effectively target and disrupt the illicit activities of transnational serious and organised crime groups and to appropriately and lawfully take the fight to serious and organised crime in Australia. I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

(Quorum formed)