On 28 June 2012 the Senate jointly referred the Military Court of Australia (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2012 and the Military Court of Australia Bill 2012 for inquiry and report.

The Military Court of Australia Bill 2012 establishes the Military Court of Australia under Chapter 3 of the Constitution and provides for the court's management, jurisdiction, procedure, and administration within the infrastructure of the Federal Court of Australia.

The Military Court of Australia (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2012 amends the Defence Force Discipline Act 1982 to:

• retain courts martial and Defence Force magistrates;
• provide for a right of election for trial;
• clarify the status and character of service offences;
• remove references to old system offences; and
• maintain cooperation where military discipline and criminal law jurisdictions overlap.

The Military Court of Australia  (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Bill also makes consequential amendments to a number of Acts and abolishes the Defence Force Discipline Appeals Tribunal by repealing the Defence Force Discipline Appeals Act 1955.

Submissions should be received by 13 July 2012. The reporting date is  9 October  2012.

The Committee is seeking written submissions from interested individuals and organisations preferably in electronic form submitted  online or sent by email to  legcon.sen@aph.gov.au as an attached Adobe PDF or MS Word format document. The email must include full postal address and contact details.

Alternatively, written submissions may be sent to:

Committee Secretary
Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia

Notes to help you prepare your submission are available from the website at https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm. Alternatively, the Committee Secretariat will be able to help you with your inquiries and can be contacted on telephone +61 2 6277 3560 or facsimile +61 2 6277 5794 or by email to legcon.sen@aph.gov.au.

Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to Parliament House TTY number 02 6277 7799. Adobe also provides tools at  http://access.adobe.com/ for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. If you require any special arrangements to enable you to participate in the Committee's inquiry, please contact the Committee Secretariat.

Once the Committee accepts your submission, it becomes a confidential Committee document and is protected by Parliamentary Privilege. You must not release your submission without the Committee's permission. If you do, it will not be protected by Parliamentary Privilege. At some stage during the inquiry, the Committee normally makes submissions public and places them on its website. Please indicate if you want your submission to be kept confidential.