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Law Enforcement Integrity Legislation Amendment Bill 2012

Introduced into the House of Representatives on 19 September 2012
Portfolio: Home Affairs
Response received: 29 October 2012

Committee view

1.2        The committee thanks the Minister for his response. The committee considers that the Minister has adequately responded to the most of the issues raised by the committee in its fifth report. However, the committee has decided to defer finalising its views on the compatibility of this bill with human rights to enable closer consideration of the following issues:

- the partial exclusion of the Fair Work Act 2009 for dismissals which have been declared to amount to serious misconduct; and

- the lack of criteria for listing substances as ‘prohibited drugs’ for the purposes of the proposed mandatory drug testing regime.

Purpose of the bill

1.3        This bill introduces a range of measures which seek to prevent corruption in Commonwealth law enforcement agencies, and to enhance the response of law enforcement agencies to cases of suspected corruption. The key measures contained in the bill are:

• the introduction of targeted integrity testing  for the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) and the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (schedule 1, part 1) and associated investigative tools, including provision for new surveillance device warrants under the Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and using intercepted information accessed under the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 for integrity operations (schedule 1, part 3);
• extension of the jurisdiction of the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) to cover AUSTRAC, CrimTrac, and prescribed staff members in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) (schedule 1, part 2); and
• the introduction of measures to bring the Australian Custom and Border Protection Service's powers to act against corruption and misconduct into line with those of the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Crime Commission (schedule 2).

1.4        The Minister's response can be found in Appendix 1.

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