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Chapter one - Introduction
Background
1.1
On 5 August
2004, the Senate referred the provisions of the Crimes Legislation
Amendment (Telecommunications Offences and Other Measures) Bill
(No.2) 2004 to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee for inquiry
and report by 11 August 2004.
1.2
The Bill repeals
existing telecommunications offences in the Crimes
Act 1914, and inserts new and updated telecommunications offences in the Criminal Code Act 1995.
1.3
It should be noted that when originally introduced into
Parliament on 24 June 2004
the Bill also included offences in relation to
access, transmission and availability of suicide related material. These
provisions are now contained in the Criminal Code Amendment (Suicide Related
Material Offences) Bill 2004.
Conduct of the Inquiry
1.4
The Committee contacted by email and telephone over 40
individuals and organisations. It should be noted although the inquiry was
conducted over a relatively short period, the bill was subject to a public
review process of the original exposure draft by the Attorney General's Department,
which involved over 60 submissions.
1.5
The Committee received 5 submissions and these are
listed at Appendix 1. Submissions were placed on the Committee's website for
ease of access by the public.
1.6
The Committee held a public hearing on 9 August 2004. A list of witnesses who
appeared at the hearing is at Appendix 2 and copies of the Hansard transcript are
available through the Internet on www.aph.gov.au/hansard
Acknowledgment
1.7
The Committee thanks those organisations and
individuals who made submissions and gave evidence at the public hearing.
Note on References
1.8
References in this report are to individual submissions
as received by the Committee, not to a bound volume. References to the
Committee Hansard are to the proof Hansard page numbers may vary between the
proof and the official Hansard transcript.
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