Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill forms a package with the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission Bill 2026, which implements recommendations of the Independent review of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and associated Commonwealth law enforcement arrangements (Independent Review), in particular the replacement of the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002.

In line with recommendations from the independent review, this bill will allow the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission to continue to impose charges for nationally coordinated criminal history check services. Nationally coordinated criminal history check services provide a complete national view of a person's convictions for criminal offences. They are used for a variety of purposes, including employment screening, working with children and vulnerable persons, and various licensing and registration schemes.

Amounts received through these charges will continue to be used to support the delivery of effective national policing information systems and services.

The bill will create a mechanism to allow the minister to specify in a legislative instrument the kinds of nationally coordinated criminal history check services that the ACIC will charge for. This will ensure there is flexibility in the legislation to support charging models for different services. For example, while nationally coordinated criminal history checks are currently provided point-in-time, in future this may be extended to continuous checking services.

The minister will also be required to specify in a legislative instrument who has to pay the charges, and the amount of each charge. This provides flexibility to impose different charges for different classes of persons, such as reduced charges for volunteers. The National Policing Information Committee, to be established under the ACIC Bill 2026, will be required to make recommendations to the minister about the charge amounts.

Closing remarks

This bill is key to the implementation of recommendations of the independent review.

The ACIC's provision of nationally coordinated criminal history check services is critical to provide a national view of a person's previous convictions for criminal offences. These services help protect the Australian community.

The revenue received supports other critical national policing information systems and services, including the National Criminal Intelligence System. These systems and services enable police and other partner agencies to perform their core functions to keep the community safe.

This bill will allow the ACIC to continue to provide these national policing information services in an adaptable and fiscally sustainable way.

I commend the bill.

Debate adjourned.