Chapter 1 - Introduction

Background

1.1      On 30 March 2006, the Senate referred the Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner Bill 2006, the Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2006 and the Law Enforcement (AFP Professional Standards and Related Measures) Bill 2006 to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 11 May 2006.

1.2      The Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner Bill 2006 establishes the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI). The Integrity Commissioner will head up the organisation and will be responsible for detecting and investigating allegations of corruption against the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) and will have the powers of a Royal Commission.

1.3      The Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2006 amends a range of Acts consequential to the establishment of ACLEI, including provisions for access to the full range of police special investigative powers.

1.4      The Law Enforcement (AFP Professional Standards and Related Measures) Bill 2006 repeals the Complaints (Australian Federal Police) Act 1981 and inserts a new part into the Australian Federal Police Act 1979 to update the complaints and professional standards regime within the AFP.

Conduct of the inquiry

1.5         The committee advertised the inquiry in The Australian newspaper on 4 April and 12 April 2006. Submissions were invited by 21 April 2006. Details of the inquiry, the Bills and associated documents were placed on the committee’s website. The committee also wrote to interested organisations and individuals.

1.6         The committee received 11 submissions and two supplementary submissions which are listed at Appendix 1. Submissions were placed on the committee’s website for ease of access by the public. The committee held a public hearing in Sydney on 27 April 2006.

Acknowledgement

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.

Navigation: Previous Page | Contents | Next Page