Page 4237 - Week 11 - Thursday, 17 Sept 2009
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their authorised assumed identities in the ACT, and the ACT to use its assumed identities in other participating jurisdictions. If the Assembly passes this bill, collaboration and joint investigations with Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania will be enhanced. The commonwealth government has also introduced a bill based upon the national model. New South Wales and Western Australia are also working towards creating correspondence with other jurisdictions.
The bill will work in synergy with the government’s controlled operations law. The combination of the laws will enhance the ability of the police to involve themselves covertly in organised crime, under strict operational control, to gain evidence and intelligence about criminal behaviour. I commend the bill to the Assembly.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (5.17), in reply: I would like to thank members for their support of this bill today. In the 1995 case of Ridgeway v the Queen, the High Court suggested that parliaments should create legislation to enable law enforcement agencies to engage in covert or controlled operations. In this case, the seven justices were deciding if evidence against a person charged with possession of a prohibited import should be dismissed because a police operation facilitated the importation of the drug involved.
Chief Justice Mason, Justice Deane and Justice Dawson said that in the context of investigation strategies that used deception and infiltration, creating law to excuse police from what would be criminal acts was a matter for the legislature, not the courts. Justice Brennan also said that it was for the legislature to impose appropriate conditions on the employment of covert methods. Therefore, the government’s Crimes (Assumed Identities) Bill meets the need articulated by the High Court in that decision.
The bill will enable police or an authorised civilian to take an assumed identity. Using the cover of an assumed identity, criminal activity can be investigated or intelligence gathered. Assumed identities provide protection for undercover operatives engaged in serious criminal investigations and infiltrating organised crime groups. The bill works in synergy, as Ms Burch has just observed, with the Crimes (Controlled Operations) Act 2008. This act provides for strict legal and operational control of a controlled operation. I would like to reassure the Assembly that the bill we are debating today also provides for strict legal and operational control of assumed identities.
These requirements include that an authorisation for creating and using an assumed identity can only be made by the highest ranks in ACT Policing or the Australian Crime Commission, that any use of an identity must be in accord with the written authority made under the bill, and that any abuse of an assumed identity by an operative is not protected. Anyone acquiring or using an assumed identity is only protected if they abide by terms of the authority and the provisions of the bill. Anyone abusing an assumed identity for criminal conduct will be liable to prosecution.
The bill also establishes both an internal and independent review process. The heads of ACT Policing and the Australian Crime Commission must conduct an internal
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