Chapter 1 - Introduction
Background
1.1
On 15 June
2005, the Senate referred the provisions of the Law and Justice
Legislation Amendment (Serious Drug Offences and Other Measures) Bill 2005 (the
Bill) to the Senate Legal and Constitutional
Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 9 August 2005. On 9
August 2005, the Senate agreed to extend the reporting date to 15 August 2005.
1.2
The Bill proposes to
insert a range of serious drug offences into Chapter 9 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (the Criminal
Code), including:
- import and export offences based on existing
offences in the Customs Act 1901 (the
Customs Act);
- offences based on Chapter 6 of the Model
Criminal Code; and
- new offences, including offences relating to the
manufacture or possession of precursor chemicals for the purpose of
manufacturing illicit drugs, and to endangering children during the drug
manufacturing process.
1.3
The Bill also makes a
number of minor amendments to existing offences in the Criminal Code relating
to children in armed conflict, and makes some minor amendments to other
legislation.
1.4
Chapter 2 provides a more detailed overview of the Bill.
Conduct of the inquiry
1.5
The committee advertised the inquiry in The Australian newspaper on 22 June 2005, and invited
submissions by 6 July 2005. Details
of the inquiry, the Bill and associated
documents were placed on the committee's website. The committee also wrote to
over 60 organisations and individuals.
1.6
The committee received 13 submissions, and these are
listed at Appendix 1. Submissions were placed on the committee's website for
ease of access by the public.
1.7
The committee held a public hearing in Canberra
on 3 August 2005. 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 http://aph.gov.au/hansard.
Acknowledgement
1.8
The committee thanks those organisations and
individuals who made submissions and gave evidence at the public hearing.
Note on references
1.9
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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