I'm pleased to speak on the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission Bill 2026 and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (National Policing Information Charges) Bill 2026. At the outset, I want to say that we need a dedicated national criminal intelligence agency to counter the growing threat posed by serious and organised crime. Sometimes when we look at Hollywood movies or the movies of yesteryear and see bushrangers or the mafia—movies like The Godfather and others—we think that the criminal gangs aren't too sophisticated. They're lumbering Luca Brasi types, as in The Godfather part I. But it's not like that. Criminal activities and criminal enterprises are very sophisticated, very organised and very threatening. We need to really modernise our capacity and our agencies to meet those challenges.

One of the challenges in relation to this particular body is that it's almost been serving two masters. Is it policing? Is it investigation? Or is it intelligence? What we're trying to do is recalibrate it to the intelligence agency it was always intended to be. We're giving it some extra powers as well in searching, warrants and the like in this legislation. So it's very, very important, and the people that work for this agency are at risk, because we have seen bombings and injuries to people in its predecessor. We have seen criminal convictions arising out of people who worked for our criminal intelligence agencies, who had been targeted. So this is a very important piece of legislation, and it's extremely important that we get it right.

The legislation ensures that the ACIC has the intelligence focus, as I said, functions and capability to respond to the threatening environments, which are ever evolving and ever changing. And we need to make sure that's the case. What might happen in the Indo-Pacific or, indeed, in Europe, Africa or the Middle East affects us. The days when we as a country had to rely on telegrams or someone had to sit beside the phone are gone. People have mobile phones these days. International commerce happens in an instant—in a blink, a second or even a nanosecond. Borders are porous. We really have a borderless world, in many respects, in terms of digital technology. And we've got such complexity in terms of these issues.

Serious and organised crime threatens the safety and wellbeing of Australian communities and has significant financial impact. As the assistant minister said, $82.3 billion in 2022-23 was the cost to the Australian economy. The bills will ensure that the ACIC is able to collect and share intelligence on serious and organised crime but also contribute to critical national policing information systems and undertake national coordinated criminal history checks to keep Australians safe. That information is absolutely vital. Serious and organised criminal groups are opportunistic. They're highly adaptive. They're sophisticated. It's borderless, and they embed themselves in legitimate systems. It is obvious how clearly they do that, in terms of people's finances, in terms of scams and in terms of embedding themselves in financial institutions, in organisations and elsewhere to get access to information to commit criminal activities.

The bill underlines the government's commitment to protect the Australian community by ensuring that we're taking action to adapt and respond to this landscape and the changes that we experience. It's the latest iteration of our national intelligence community and agencies, which have always historically focused on combating serious and organised crime. We need our institutional arrangements and our agencies to be up to date, be contemporary, be modern and have the capacities they need, in terms of the legislative framework.

The ACIC commenced as Australia's National criminal Intelligence Agency a couple of decades ago, in 2003. It replaced the National Crime Authority, the NCA, the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence and the Office of Strategic Crime Assessments. On 1 July 2016, the Australian Crime Commission Amendment (National Policing Information) Act amended the ACC Act and merged CrimTrac and its functions into the ACC. Just as a reminder of the threats that these agencies have had, a former NCA chairman once said, 'We are dealing with the most evil, calculating and manipulative people, who have significant financial resources and good reason to stop us in our work or harm us as individuals.' And, as I said before, investigators have been killed and injured by organised criminal elements, and there have been criminal convictions in relation to these events.

The ACIC has two main functions, and we're reiterating that: to collect, analyse and communicate intelligence relating to serious and organised crime impacting our country, particularly where there's a transnational dimension to it, and to ensure there are systems and services that enable criminal intelligence and policing information to be shared across jurisdictions—absolutely vital. Australia is made up of six states and two territories, and we have to share information with our Five Eyes partners and other agencies across the world as well. We need a national coordination of criminal history checks. The ACIC conducts criminal intelligence assessments to determine if intelligence held by the agency suggests a person may commit serious and organised crime or assist a person to commit serious and organised crime. The recent Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Firearms and Customs Laws) Act 2026, which responded to the shocking Bondi terrorist attack, introduced a revised criminal intelligence assessment framework under part III of the ACC Act. From 1 July 2022 to 12 May 2025, the ACIC was part of the Attorney-General's portfolio and reported to the Attorney-General. But, on 13 May 2025, the agency was mogged or moved, as they say, to Home Affairs, and it now reports to the Minister for Home Affairs. Lest anyone think that this is the only body that we have in terms of criminal intelligence and other agencies that combat crime, I say that this is one of 10 agencies that comprise our National Intelligence Community.

The legislation implements the government's response to the independent review undertaken by former Defence Signals Directorate director Mr Stephen Merchant PSM and intelligence expert Mr Greg Wilson. It was a first-principles review commissioned by the government, and it recognised that the functions and powers vested in the ACIC are no longer fit for purpose and this inhibits it from effectively fulfilling its intelligence mandate. Submissions to that review are interesting. The stakeholders made the point that the ACIC was 'neither fish nor fowl' and was 'trapped between a rock and a hard place'. The review agreed with these findings and concluded that, as currently operating, the ACIC is 'neither a first-class investigative agency nor a first-class criminal intelligence agency'. That's that conflict I referred to in terms of the duality. It needed to change.

In its submission, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, ASPI, noted:

The transition of the ACIC to an intelligence-focused agency offers a strong opportunity to strengthen Australia's response to organised crime.

However, in order to do this, they argued that the government must first address a number of challenges, which included redistributing the ACIC's operational functions to other agencies; ensuring the ACIC's intelligence is actionable and integrated into the broader national security and law enforcement framework; securing a long-term funding model; and recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce.

In November 2024, the Attorney-General published the unclassified report—we couldn't get the classified report; we could only get the unclassified aspects of it—and the government responded to the review's 29 recommendations. The government broadly agreed or agreed in principle to the majority of the recommendations. The review concluded:

… the ACIC is inhibited from fulfilling this intelligence mandate by a lack of clarity about its role, complicated legislative frameworks and uncertainty about its funding.

So the review recommended that, effectively, the ACIC Act be repealed and that there should be an objects clause and an addressing of that duality in relation to it, confirming that it is an intelligence agency, not an investigative or law enforcement agency. The review recommended:

… the new legislation should specify that the intelligence role encompasses undertaking Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Checks … and the preparation and provision of individual criminal intelligence assessments.

This is a response to that review. The ACIC will remain subject to oversight, including by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.

I won't go through all the necessary schedules. There are a number of different parts, including parts 1 and 2. There are parts that deal with coercive powers, controlled intelligence operations and search warrants. Interestingly enough, in part 5 it establishes a new framework for the ACIC to execute search warrants, as I indicated earlier, on persons and premises, removing their reliance on existing law enforcement powers. I think that's a good initiative as well, by the way.

Part 6 enables it to provide national policing information, which is absolutely vital, and also to engage in national coordination of criminal history checks. There's some streamlining of communication frameworks as well, in relation to it.

The legislation has been subject to appropriate consultation. The Department of Home Affairs consulted a plethora of Commonwealth agencies. The bill was referred to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, for an inquiry, on 30 March. The committee reported back on 21 October, recommending this legislation be passed and making a number of recommendations. I'm pleased that the coalition members, the Liberal and National Party members, on the committee recommended this also, and they were doing the right thing in supporting the bill.

In summing up, I want to thank the Minister for Home Affairs and the Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs for bringing forward these important reforms. I want to acknowledge their strong stance in standing up to criminal elements in our society and ensuring our government agencies have all the capability and resources they need to do this. The measures in this bill will fundamentally recast the ACIC as Australia's national criminal intelligence agency and focus it on what it always should have been focusing on: countering the scourge of serious and organised crime and looking at the intelligence aspects that are necessary to do so. The reality is that serious and organised crime costs the Australian public, economy, businesses and families billions of dollars, and it's crucial that we engage in activities to prevent this. So we are equipping our agency here with the appropriate powers and intelligence capability. It's imperative we equip all our agencies with the appropriate powers and capability. We want to put the serious and organised criminal groups on notice: 'We are coming after you.' This legislation is absolutely vital. It's an overhaul long overdue. It modernises the commission's operations. It will no longer be in a position where its capacity is undermined. And we are cracking down on criminal ventures accordingly.

It takes a network to break a network, so collaboration is essential in the fight against serious and organised crime. This legislation will deliver a more networked and nationally-coordinated approach. It will ensure the agency, the commission, has effectively got the capacity to share intelligence with partners and it will put law enforcement another step ahead of organised crime. I commend the legislation to the chamber.

Debate adjourned.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:28