Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 14 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 4992 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

Those special powers, which are similar to the powers that have been given to a number of other statutory bodies, include the power to obtain documents and other evidence and to summons a person to appear at a hearing to give evidence under oath. The powers are utilised in a confidential manner to protect not only the integrity of investigations but also the privacy of suspects. The provisions in the bill establish when the commission will be able to use or exercise the extraordinary coercive and investigative powers that have been given to it by the Commonwealth government to investigate organised crime.

Members in this place should consider whether these provisions adequately protect them and the citizens of this territory. We must also ensure that the bill will safeguard us from corruption, corrupt police officers or a corrupt chief of police. The commission will have associated with it a broad and intergovernmental committee of relevant ministers. A chief executive officer will control the operations of the commission, which is a new development. The process that will be followed to appoint members to the board differs from the process that was followed by the NCA. I will not go into those details at this stage but I advise members that those details should be considered when we are determining issues of accountability and oversight.

We have only to look at Commonwealth legislation to know that the constitution of the board is not defined in territory legislation. The board's consent is required before the commission can declare an ACC territory intelligence operation or investigation as special. The chair of the board must provide such a written determination to the intergovernmental committee. The determination of the board must have immediate effect if such an operation is to begin. The intergovernmental committee, within a period of 30 days, can ask for more information or decide to revoke such a determination. This bill will basically enable police ministers to oversight such investigations and operations. Clause 19 (10), a curious provision, states:

The committee does not have a duty to consider whether to exercise the power under subsection (1) or (6) in relation to any special determination, whether the committee is requested to do so by anyone, or in any other circumstances.

I think that this clause, which places quite extraordinary limitations on the committee's scrutiny powers, needs some further consideration or discussion. The parliamentary joint committee also recommended, among other things, that the Commonwealth bill be amended to ensure that the relevant state or states are informed of any operations or investigations proposed within their boundaries. I do not believe that change appears in this legislation. The PJC also recommended that, under our system of responsible government, the federal Minister for Justice and Customs should be the minister accountable to the parliament for the work of the ACT. It might be useful to identify in this legislation the minister who is accountable and responsible to the parliament.

We all want organised crime to be investigated and halted but we do not want innocent-or even guilty-people harassed and we do not want anyone convicted for things that they did not do. The powers that have been given to the commission to conduct special investigations go beyond the powers that have been given to ordinary police officers. We have placed a limitation on the ability of such bodies to conduct investigations in order to protect ourselves from being falsely accused or arbitrarily deprived of our liberty.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .