Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

It may be helpful if I go through the types of offences that might be covered by the benefit restriction notice. It draws on the concept of serious violent or sexual offences within the meaning of the Criminal Code, but it captures a Commonwealth, state or territory offence where the offence is punishable by imprisonment for life or by a maximum period of at least seven years and where the offence involves or would involve one of the following: loss of a person's life or serious risk to a person's life; serious personal injury or serious risk of serious personal injury; sexual assault; production, publication, possession, supply or sale of child abuse material; consenting to or procuring the employment of a child or employing a child in connection with child abuse material; or acts done in preparation for or to facilitate the commission of a sexual offence against a person under the age of 16.

An individual captured by this would have to have been charged with one of the offences that I just read out and have an outstanding arrest warrant for that. Specifically, on the points that Senator Thorpe just made, the supplementary explanatory memorandum deals with that on page 21, where it talks about the engagement of certain rights and the narrow set of circumstances, saying that the limitation 'is proportionate to the objective of ensuring that people who have been charged with serious violent or sexual offences and are subject to an outstanding arrest warrant cannot continue to benefit from social security payments, which might be assisting them in evading the authorities'. That deals with the engagement of human rights and the proportionate response to that. It is detailed in those several paragraphs on page 21.