Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Attorney-General's Portfolio Miscellaneous Measures Bill 2023 will make a range of important amendments to update, clarify and improve the intended operation of legislation administered by the Attorney-General.

The bill will enhance the capacity of the Australian court system to deal with corporate criminal offences and enable a more efficient jury preparation process in the Federal Court of Australia.

The bill will also deliver on the government's election commitment to abolish the Native Title Respondents Scheme.

The bill will:

Federal Court criminal jurisdiction

The bill will confer jurisdiction on the Federal Court to hear and determine a range of indictable corporate criminal offences within the responsibility of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. This is an important step in the development of the Federal Court's criminal jurisdiction, which was last significantly expanded in 2009 when jurisdiction was conferred in relation to indictable cartel offences. The Federal Court has considerable expertise in civil, commercial and corporate matters, and is well positioned to deal with this expanded criminal jurisdiction.

This jurisdiction will operate concurrently with the existing jurisdiction of state and territory courts. This will enhance the overall capacity of Australia's court system and support the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to more efficiently prosecute corporate criminal conduct.

In the interests of effective and efficient administration of justice, the bill will also provide for proceedings in relation to corporate crime offences to be transferred to the most appropriate court, having regard to the interests of justice.

Neither the concurrent conferral of jurisdiction nor the transfer provision will interfere with the independence of state and territory courts or the powers of Supreme Court chief justices to manage and allocate cases within their jurisdiction.

To support the efficient resolution of criminal proceedings, the bill will confer jurisdiction on the Federal Court to hear and determine summary offences which arise from substantially the same facts as primary indictable offences being heard in the court. This will avoid the possibility of prosecutors having to commence new proceedings in a state or territory court in relation to the related summary offence.

The Legislative and Governance Forum on Corporations was consulted in relation to schedule 1 of this bill, as required under the Corporations Agreement 2002 and the National Credit Law Agreement 2009.

Federal Court juries

The bill seeks to improve the efficiency of jury preparation processes by allowing state and territory jury officials to provide a jury panel to the Federal Court. This will be in addition to the existing powers of the sheriff of the Federal Court to prepare a jury panel. To respect the independence of states and territories, the consent of the relevant state or territory will be required before the sheriff can request a state or territory jury official to provide a jury panel.

Repeal section 213A of the Native Title Act 1993

Section 213A of the Native Title Act 1993 will be repealed to give full effect to the government's election commitment to abolish the Native Title Respondents Scheme. Abolition of the Native Title Respondents Scheme was a commitment taken to the 2022 election and will save $6.4 million over four years from 2022-23. Many significant questions of native title law have now been settled and the government considers that many current native title respondents, which are generally commercially viable or sound entities, would have the capacity to deal with native title matters as part of their ordinary business costs.

Amendments to the Marriage Act 1961

The bill will make minor amendments to the Marriage Act 1961 to clarify and improve the operation of the Marriage Celebrants Program and provide greater accessibility for marrying couples.

The amendments will improve accessibility by permanently allowing the option of virtual witnessing for notices of intended marriage. Marrying couples, particularly those in rural and regional areas, will greatly benefit from this change.

To ensure the foundational requirement of consent is safeguarded, a complementary amendment requires authorised celebrants to meet independently and in person with each party to a marriage before they solemnise the marriage.

The reasons for transferring a notice of intended marriage have also been extended to allow for circumstances where the marrying couple want to change their celebrant.

The amendments will clarify that an authorised celebrant can only be registered in one subdivision at any time, and that marriage must be solemnised in the physical presence of an authorised celebrant.

The identity requirements to be provided to an authorised celebrant will be clarified by providing that a statutory declaration can be used to provide identity details if it is impracticable to obtain an official record of birth and the person does not have a current passport.

The Commonwealth Marriage Celebrants Program will be improved by extending the time frame for assessing applications to allow applicants the best opportunity to complete their applications and inserting a power to refund application fees in the Marriage Act where an applicant does not have the mandatory qualification.

Deputy registrars will be able to be appointed to assist the Registrar of Marriage Celebrants to, among other things, process the large volume of applications to become a marriage celebrant.

Arbitration

The bill makes technical amendments to the arbitration framework in the Family Law Act 1975. The amendments will allow parties and arbitrators to make applications for review of an arbitral award or to determine a question of law to both divisions of the Federal Circuit and Family Court. These amendments remove the administrative burden on the Federal Circuit and Family Court arising from the current need to transfer these applications from division 2 to division 1 for determination.

Conclusion

This bill will deliver a range of amendments to legislation administered by the Attorney-General, to provide lasting benefits to Australia's legal system.

And I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.