House of Representatives

Revised Explanatory Memorandum

(Circulated by authority of the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator the Honourable Chris Ellison)

Notes on clauses

Clause 1: Short title

The short title of this Act is the National Crime Authority Legislation Amendment Act 2001.

Clause 2: Commencement

This clause provides that clauses 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the Bill will commence on Royal Assent (clauses 1, 2 and 3 are formal; clause 4 contains the proposed review and report requirements (see Item 2)).

Schedules 1 to 7 and 9 to 12 will commence on a day to be fixed by Proclamation or 6 months after the Act receives the Royal Assent, whichever occurs first. The necessary consequential Regulations will be made during this time.

Schedule 8 will amend the Crimes Act 1914 to replace references to "Chairperson" of the Authority with references to "Chair" of the Authority. As the provisions to be amended will also be amended by the Measures to Combat Serious and Organised Crime Bill (the Measures Bill) the commencement provision has been framed so that the amendments proposed by Schedule 8 may be proclaimed to commence after the commencement of the Measures Bill. If the Measures Bill is not enacted, Schedule 8 will be proclaimed to commence as the amendments proposed by Schedule 8 are able to operate on the existing Crimes Act provisions.

Clause 3: Schedule(s)

This clause provides that each Act that is specified in a Schedule is amended as set out in that Schedule.

Clause 4: Review of effect of the Act

This Item proposes clause 4 of the Bill, which will set out the requirements for a five-year review of the provisions that remove the defence of reasonable excuse, remove derivative-use immunity and increase the penalties for non-compliance with the NCA Act. The purpose of the review is to assess how the operations of the Authority have been enhanced by the improved investigatory powers and to ensure that there is a formal assessment of the continuing appropriateness of these provisions.

The proposed clause provides that:

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The Minister must appoint a person who, in the opinion of the Minister, is suitably qualified to review and report on the effect the implementation of the specified provisions has had on the operations of the Authority.

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The review period will be the five-year period beginning on the commencement of Part 1 of Schedule 1 (in which the provisions to be reviewed appear).

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The review and report must include an assessment of the way in which the specified provisions have facilitated the Authority in the performance of its functions and the extent (if any) to which persons have been unjustifiably prejudiced because of the removal of the defence of reasonable excuse and the removal of derivative-use immunity.

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The Authority must give all reasonable assistance to the person undertaking the review and such assistance will not result in a contravention of the secrecy or non-disclosure provisions set out in section 51 of the NCA Act.

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In recognition of the statutory role of the IGC-NCA, a copy of the report is to be provided to the IGC-NCA, before being forwarded to the Commonwealth Minister with administrative responsibility for the Authority.

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The Commonwealth Minister is to table the report within 15 sitting days of its receipt (that is after the IGC-NCA has considered the report and provided any comments).