Page 3813 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 8 November 1994
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As I understand the Minister, the legislation that applies in the Commonwealth is legislation that will not apply in the ACT. It has previously been the case that Commonwealth law in these areas has applied in the ACT. The Commonwealth is to evacuate this area of the law as of 1 December, in the expectation that the ACT will enact its own provisions dealing with the subject of this Bill, namely, the obtaining of search warrants; powers of arrest by police; powers of police to demand the name and address of people suspected of having committed crimes; the execution of warrants; identification parades; and, generally, the taking of evidence by the police in the course of their duties. As I indicated previously, the Commonwealth law has applied in this area. There have also been a number of sources of procedure, such as police regulations and other subordinate laws, which have affected this area. We are now going to see a consolidation of the law in this Bill. I think that it is the intention of the Government, although it is not entirely clear, that the laws here will eventually be the sole place to which one will be able to turn to see what the laws are, for example, in respect of powers of search and entry; powers to strip search somebody; powers to conduct an investigation applying a search warrant; and so on. It would certainly be useful to be able to say that there was a single source of authority for the actions in those areas.
We are all aware, from some problems in the past in this respect, that there are a number of sources of law with respect to search and entry powers, for example. It is important that, in a single place, people can know where the laws are and what their rights are in respect of those powers. Although it is not entirely clear from the Minister's presentation speech, I take it that one of the possible ways of bringing into line other laws is to repeal provisions in other laws relating to this area and let it all be sourced from the Crimes Act. That is my hope. Perhaps that will be the ultimate result of the process. We will see.
Madam Speaker, the legislation gives us relatively little room to move, because it is modelled very closely on Federal legislation. As I indicated, that Federal legislation comes into force on 1 December. There is only a very small number of ways in which our legislation departs from that. I have been fortunate to receive from the Minister's department a copy of a document which indicates what are the 10 areas of departure. They are not very great. Substantially, we are enacting a consistent arrangement with the Commonwealth for police powers in this area. I will not go through the very many areas in which this law is going to operate. I will record my disappointment that, apparently, the Australian Federal Police Association, in either its national or its ACT manifestation, was not consulted about the terms of this legislation, which seems to me to be a somewhat extraordinary omission. I have spoken only today with both the ACT secretary and the national secretary of that trade union, and both disavowed any direct knowledge of the legislation, although they did explain to me that subsequently they had obtained, through legal officers in the Australian Federal Police, information about what was going on. That is a far cry from being consulted directly, I must say. I would hope that the great consultative Government would do better in future on matters of such direct relevance.
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