Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Introduction

The Commonwealth Parole Board (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025 makes consequential amendments to part 1B of the Crimes Act 1914, to support the establishment and functions of the Commonwealth Parole Board.

This bill replaces the Attorney-General as the decision-maker for federal offenders, and other detainees, within part 1B of the Crimes Act.

The consequential amendments will ensure the board has the key decision-making powers to function effectively and efficiently. This includes the power to make, refuse to make, or amend parole orders for federal offenders, and to deal with other relevant decisions, including release on licence orders, breaches and revocation of parole or licence orders, overseas travel requests, and the ability to amend orders in certain circumstances.

Many of the arrangements for the board that are dealt with in the bill would generally apply to the board in the way they currently apply to the Attorney-General.

The bill does, however, make some key changes to parole decision-making to align with best-practice approaches in states and territories and internationally. These amendments provide the board with flexibility to ensure that decisions are made effectively and efficiently, while still retaining statutory protections and timeframes for people to be considered for parole.

Currently, the Crimes Act requires the decision-maker to consider an offender for parole before the end of the non-parole period set by the court and reconsider an offender within every 12 months after any refusal of parole. There is currently no discretion available for a decision-maker to defer a parole decision for any reason.

This can have the perverse effect of delaying or preventing rehabilitation or reintegration outcomes for offenders.

For example, currently a decision-maker may be required to make a decision where the offender would otherwise be recommended for parole but suitable accommodation is not yet finalised.

Or a decision-maker may require further information to support a decision but cannot obtain that information ahead of the statutory consideration date and be required to make the decision on insufficient information.

There are also circumstances where there are clear factors for a refusal that will take longer than 12 months for an offender to address, such as sex offender treatment programs that take up to 18 months to complete. However, due to the 12 month statutory reconsideration date, a decision-maker is required to reconsider that offender for parole before they've had a chance to complete their treatment.

To address these issues, part 1B of the Crimes Act will be amended to provide the board with discretion to:

These amendments will provide the board the necessary discretion to manage statutory deadlines. This flexibility will ensure procedural fairness is afforded to federal defenders during the decision-making process. This includes providing the offender the opportunity to address factors or provide further information that, without this new discretion, may have resulted in a refusal decision on their application.

These changes to the existing parole framework strike the balance between providing the board with the flexibility to manage parole consideration timeframes effectively and efficiently while maintaining the statutory protection of regular parole reconsiderations for offenders.

The bill also includes transitional provisions to ensure the transfer of parole decision-making functions from the Attorney-General to the new Commonwealth Parole Board occurs seamlessly and does not impact the operations of state and territory corrective services or law enforcement agencies. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.