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This Digest was prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as
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CONTENTS
Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment Bill
1996
Date Introduced: 4 December 1996
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Attorney-General
Commencement: Royal Assent with the exception of
Items 21, 22, 23 and 27 of
The Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 1996 (the Bill)
is an omnibus Bill which will make a number of largely
non-contentious amendments to Acts administered by the
Attorney-General'sportfolio. Theamendments :
correct anomalies in the Australian Federal Police Act
1979 and Crimes
- (Superannuation Benefits) Act 1989 in relation to the
cancellation of employer funded superannuation benefits;
- increase the value of a penalty unit in the Crimes Act
1914;
- permit cost recovery in relation to storage and maintenance of
confiscated narcotic-related goods under the Customs Act
1901;
- correct technical deficiencies in the bail and custody
provisions of the Extradition Act 1988;
- change the requirements for property restrained under the
Proceeds of Crime Act1987;
- introduce a defence ofreasonable corporate precaution for
bodies corporate under the Proceeds of Crime Act 1987
and
- remove the requirement to obtain Ministerial consent to
prosecute in several Commonwealth Acts
As there is no central theme to this Bill, a brief background to
each major amendment will be outlined below.
Amendments to the Australian Federal Police Act
1979
Part VA of the Australian Federal Police Act 1979
provides for the cancellation of superannuation benefits for AFP
members and staff who have been convicted of corruption offencesand
sentenced to imprisonment for terms exceeding 12 months. Under the
current provisions persons serving concurrent or aggregate
sentences which individually do not exceed twelve months cannot
lose their superannuation benefits. According to the Minister's
Second Reading Speech, the proposed amendments will make a
technical amendment to align Part VA of the Act with current
sentencing practice.(1) Under proposed section
45(1) a superannuation order may be made if the single
sentence or the aggregate sentence in respect of corruption
offences exceeds twelve months. Sentences under subsection 20AB(1)
of the Crimes Act 1914 which are an alternative to full
time incarceration are excluded from these superannuation orders.
(Item 1 - Schedule 1).
Amendments to the Crimes (Superannuation Benefits) Act
1989
The purpose of the Crimes (Superannuation Benefits) Act
1989 is to allow courts to order that employer superannuation
contributions are not payable to federal employees, judges and
members of parliament convicted of corruption offences
Items 10-17 of the Bill amend the Crimes
(Superannuation Benefits) Act 1989 and mirror the amendments
to the Australian Federal Police Act 1979 discussed
above.
Amendments to the Crimes Act 1914
On the recommendation of the Gibbs Committee's Review of
Commonwealth Criminal Law, section 4AA was included in the
Crimes Act 1914 in 1992 so that the value of all
pecuniary penalty provisions in Commonwealth legislation could be
expressed in penalty units and therefore adjusted from time to time
to reflect current money value. The stated intention of the Review
in making the above recommendation was '...by amendment of one Act
the value of the penalty units specified in any Commonwealth Act or
regulation in respect of an offence under that Act or regulation
could be varied'.(2)
Item9 amends section 4AA of the Crimes Act
1914 to increase the value of a penalty unit from $100 to
$110. The increase corresponds to the Consumer Price Index figure
of 9.6% for the period between June 1992 and September 1995.(3)
Amendments to the Customs Act 1901
Item 18 inserts new subsection
208DA(3A) into the Customs Act to enable the Commonwealth
to recover costs incurred in relation to the transportation and
storage of confiscated narcotic-related goods prior to their
transfer to the Official Trustee. Narcotic-related goods are
defined in section 4 of the Customs Act. They include vehicles and
vessels used in drug trafficking. The Official Trustee is
responsible for their disposal andalready recovers similar costs
under current section 208DA(3).
Amendments to the Extradition Act 1988
Item 19 which amends subsection 15(3) of the
Extradition Act aims to correct a deficiency in relation to
applications for bail by a person during remand. The proposed
section would allow a person who has had a bail application
rejected to make a further application if there is evidence of a
change in circumstances that might justify bail being granted.
Proposed section 49(2) inserted by Item
20 requires that persons who are believed to have escaped
custody must be brought before a magistrate by the arresting police
officer. The magistrate must be satisfied that the person has
escaped from custody before authorising their return to
custody.
Amendments to the Proceeds of Crime Act 1987
The Proceeds of Crime Act 1984 provides for the
confiscation and forfeiture of property of defendants charged with
serious offences. Property that remains confiscated or restrained
six months after conviction is forfeited automatically to the
Commonwealth.
The bill makes two amendments to the Principal Act:
1. If a defendant makes an application for a variation of a
restraining or confiscationorder within the statutory six month
period, then the proposed section 30A will stay
the forfeiture of the restrained property until that application
has been determined by the court.
2. Under section 65(1) of the Proceeds
of Crime Act a body corporate is vicariously liable for the
criminal conduct of its directors, servants or agents.
Proposed section 65(2) prevents the criminal
conduct of directors, servants or agents from being imputed to a
body corporate where the body corporate can demonstrate that it
took reasonable precautions and exercised due diligence. Similar
provisions are found in other Commonwealth legislation.
- Second Reading Speech, Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment
Bill 1996, House of Representatives, 4 December 1996: 7712.
- Attorney-General's Department, Review of Commonwealth Criminal
Law, Fifth Interim Report, June 1991: 195.
- Second Reading Speech, Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment
Bill 1996, House of Representatives, 4 December 1996: 7712.
Mary Anne Neilsen
12 February 1997
Bills Digest Service
Information and Research Services
This Digest does not have any official legal status. Other
sources should be consulted to determine whether the Bill has been
enacted and, if so, whether the subsequent Act reflects further
amendments.
IRS staff are available to discuss the paper's contents
with Senators and Members and their staff but not with members of
the public.
ISSN 1323-9031
Commonwealth of Australia 1996
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Published by the Department of the Parliamentary Library,
1997.
This page was prepared by the Parliamentary Library,
Commonwealth of Australia
Last updated: 24 March 1997
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