Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1
On 14 May 2009, the Senate referred the AusCheck Amendment Bill 2009 to
the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for inquiry and
report by 16 June 2009.
1.2
The Bill was
introduced in the House of Representatives on 7 December 2008 by the
Attorney-General, the Hon. Robert McClelland, and seeks to amend the AusCheck
Act 2007 ('the Act'), which currently provides
for background checking of applicants for Aviation and Maritime Security
Identification Cards, otherwise known as ASIC and MSIC cards.
Summary of key amendments
1.3
The Bill would provide the capacity for AusCheck to conduct additional
background checks, namely for numerous and broadly-defined ‘national security
purposes’, when checks are authorised under some other legislative instrument.
1.4
The Bill would also provide broad regulation-making power to the
Attorney-General, who would be authorised to table regulations for the
establishment of background checking schemes for purposes relating to national
security, defence, national emergency, terrorism, or any matter related to the
executive power of the Commonwealth or matters incidental to the legislative
powers of the Parliament.
1.5
The
Bill would also provide for authorisation to collect biometric information
about a person during the completion of a background check, and would amend
provisions relating to an existing online identity verification system to
reflect the broader scope of background checking enabled by the Bill.
Conduct of the inquiry
1.6
The committee
advertised the inquiry in The Australian newspaper on 20 May 2009, and
invited submissions by 3 June 2009. Details of the inquiry, the Bill, and associated documents were placed on the committee's website. The committee also wrote
to approximately 30 organisations and individuals inviting submissions.
1.7
The committee
received 7 submissions which are listed at Appendix 1. Submissions were placed
on the committee's website for ease of access by the public.
1.8
The committee
held a public hearings in Sydney on 10 June 2009. A list of witnesses who
appeared at the hearing is at Appendix 2 and copies of the Hansard transcript
are available through the Internet at https://www.aph.gov.au/hansard.
Acknowledgement
1.9
The committee
thanks the organisations and individuals who made submissions and gave evidence
at the public hearing.
Note on references
1.10
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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