Senate debates

Wednesday, 19 June 2013

Bills

Australian Capital Territory Water Management Legislation Amendment Bill 2013, Crimes Legislation Amendment (Law Enforcement Integrity, Vulnerable Witness Protection and Other Measures) Bill 2013, Migration Amendment (Offshore Resources Activity) Bill 2013, Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Bill 2013, Social Security Legislation Amendment (Public Housing Tenants' Support) Bill 2013, Therapeutic Goods Amendment (2013 Measures No. 1) Bill 2013; Second Reading

5:14 pm

Photo of Kate LundyKate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | | Hansard source

I move:

That these bills be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY WATER MANAGEMENT LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL 2013

The Australian Capital Territory Water Management Legislation Amendment Bill 2013 is another step in the improvement of water governance in the Murray-Darling Basin. This Bill will allow the ACT government to manage water abstraction on national land in the ACT, enabling the Commonwealth and the ACT to fulfill their obligations under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, which was made in November last year. The management of water on national land in the ACT is currently a Commonwealth function.

The Australian Capital Territory Water Management Legislation Amendment Bill 2013 facilitates the implementation of the Basin Plan, and will enable the ACT to prepare a Basin Plan compliant water resource plan. Under the Basin Plan the ACT is required to prepare a water resource plan that covers all the Territory's water resources, as well as the Googong dam. Googong dam water resources, while managed by the Territory for the purposes of supplying water to the Territory, are a Commonwealth water resource located on NSW land. Through amendments to the Australian Capital Territory (Planning and Land Management) Act 1988 (PALM Act), the Water Act 2007 and the Canberra Water Supply (Googong Dam) Act 1974, this Bill provides the appropriate legislative backing for the ACT to prepare a Basin Plan compliant water resource plan.

For over a century, the Murray-Darling Basin has not been managed with a basin-wide plan. This has resulted in environmental degradation, a lack of resilience and an ongoing layer of uncertainties to basin communities. Murray-Darling Basin reform has relied on a number of steps being taken; the National Water Initiative, the development of water markets, the Water Act 2007 and the making of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan last year. The Basin Plan will restore the health of our rivers, support strong regional communities and ensure sustainable food production.

This Bill amends the Australian Capital Territory (Planning and Land Management) Act 1988 (PALM Act), which regulates the management of land in the ACT, so the abstraction of water on national land is no longer managed by the Commonwealth government and can be managed by the ACT consistent with the Basin Plan.

Into the future, the abstraction of water on national land, as well as the abstraction of water by Commonwealth agencies throughout the ACT, will be managed by the ACT government under its Water Resources Act 2007. This will be achieved by amendments to associated Commonwealth legislative instruments so that all the take of water is covered by the ACT's Water Resources Act 2007.

This Bill also amends the Water Act 2007 to enable the Googong dam area to be included in a water resource plan area for which the ACT has responsibility to prepare a water resource plan. These amendments, along with those being made to provide the ACT the power to plan for all water resources managed by the Territory, will provide the legislative backing required for the ACT to prepare a Basin Plan compliant water resource plan.

This Bill amends the Canberra Water Supply (Googong Dam) Act 1974 to ensure that the ACT executive has the necessary powers to fully manage the surface waters of the Googong Dam under the ACT Water Resources Act. The aim of this amendment is to ensure that all water resources under ACT control are managed under a consistent framework.

This change will not affect any agreements reached by the Commonwealth, New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory governments on the supply of water to Queanbeyan.

National water reform is an ongoing process and the making of the Basin Plan was a critical step forward in this regard. The reforms to water governance arrangements set out in this Bill are another small but important step to help maintain the momentum towards improved water management outcomes and ultimately resource sustainability through the implementation of the Basin Plan in the ACT.

Cooperative, consistent and efficient management arrangements of water extraction within the ACT will have long-term benefits on the sustainability of water resources within the ACT.

I commend this bill to the Senate.

CRIMES LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (LAW ENFORCEMENT INTEGRITY, VULNERABLE WITNESS PROTECTION AND OTHER MEASURES) BILL

The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Law Enforcement Integrity, Vulnerable Witness Protection and Other Measures) Bill delivers on the Gillard Government’s continuing commitment to combating corruption and to protecting and supporting the victims of serious Commonwealth offences such as slavery and human trafficking. The Bill also includes a range of measures which strengthen existing laws and ensure that the criminal law in this country is responsive to emerging threats.

This Labor Government is committed to a safe and secure Australia. That means making sure that we have the right laws and processes in place and that law enforcement agencies have the right tools to fight crime and corruption.

The Bill will improve and clarify aspects of Commonwealth criminal law including:

              I will address each of these measures in turn.

              This Labor Government is committed to looking after the vulnerable in our society. We understand that victims of crime are among the most vulnerable and they need support and assistance to seek the justice they deserve.

              That is why we established the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and passed legislation earlier this year so that people could share their experiences with Commissioners in private sessions. The Government recognised that relating these traumatic experiences is difficult and that special provisions need to be put in place so that the voices of these individuals can be heard.

              In the same way, the Government recognises that victims of particular Commonwealth offences need to feel properly supported to give evidence of the horrific crimes that have affected their lives so deeply.

              Historically, Commonwealth offences were, for the most part, offences where the victim was the Commonwealth, such as social security or tax fraud. However, more recently, Commonwealth offences have come to encompass some of the most inherently traumatic offences against the individual - slavery, slavery-like and human trafficking offences.

              In addition, the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Slavery, Slavery-like Conditions and People Trafficking) Act, passed by the Government earlier this year, introduced new slavery-like offences with individual victims, including forced marriage and forced labour.

              While the Crimes Act currently provides vulnerable witness protections for children in proceedings for sexual offences, there are no similar Commonwealth protections for adult victims of slavery, slavery-like and human trafficking offences, nor any specific protections for witnesses who may be vulnerable due to a particular characteristic (for example, a witness who requires support or alternative arrangements to effectively give evidence due to a disability or their cultural background).

              This Bill will provide protections for vulnerable witnesses giving evidence in proceedings for Commonwealth criminal offences and provide a scheme for the use of victim impact statements in the sentencing of federal offenders.

              These protections will ensure that witnesses can present their best testimony in court, without intimidation, re-traumatisation, fear for their safety or undue public embarrassment.

              A scheme allowing the use of victim impact statements will benefit victims by providing catharsis, vindication and healing. It will also promote the rehabilitation of offenders by confronting them with the impact of their offending behaviour.

              This Bill also contains measures to strengthen the ability of the Integrity Commissioner to prevent, detect and investigate corruption.

              The Government is committed to fighting corruption. Even though Transparency International consistently rates Australia as one of the ten least corrupt countries in the world, we must not be complacent.

              The Government has already introduced a number of measures to make law enforcement agencies a more hostile environment for corruption. These measures include targeted integrity testing for Australian Federal Police, Australian Crime Commission and Customs officers suspected of engaging in corrupt conduct.

              The Government has also doubled the number of law enforcement agencies under the jurisdiction of the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity and doubled the resources available to the Commission to oversee Customs.

              This bill includes two amendments which will assist the Integrity Commissioner in its oversight capacity.

              One of the agencies that will come under the jurisdiction from 1 July this year is AUSTRAC. This Bill will amend the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act to ensure that the Integrity Commissioner is able to access all information held by AUSTRAC when it is relevant to a corruption investigation, and grant appropriate protections to that information.

              The Bill will also amend the Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner Act 2006 to allow the Integrity Commissioner to second employees of the Australian Federal Police and other police forces who are not sworn police officers. These officers often have important technical skills which can be of assistance to the Integrity Commissioner in undertaking his or her functions.

              This Bill will also amend areas of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 to enable more expeditious review of AUSTRAC decisions, harden existing offences, enable AUSTRAC to engage industry secondees, enhance privacy protections, and strengthen financial intelligence by adding the Commonwealth Clean Energy Regulator and the Integrity Commission of Tasmania as designated agencies.

              The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Law Enforcement Integrity, Vulnerable Witness Protection and Other Measures) Bill also contains amendments to improve the investigation, prosecution and sentencing of people smuggling offences in Australia.

              This Government has always been of the view that minors don’t belong in adult jails. And that is why the former Attorney-General, the Honourable Nicola Roxon MP ordered a review of people smuggling cases where age was in doubt.

              28 cases were re-examined, following requests from the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Indonesian Government, using improved age determination processes that were not available when age was raised in these cases. As a result of the review, 15 crew were released early from prison on licence as there was a doubt they may have been minors on arrival in Australia, two crew were released early on parole, three crew completed their non-parole periods and eight crew remain to serve their sentences, as there was no evidence supporting suggestions they were minors at the time of their arrival.

              Consistent with the view that wrist x-rays are no longer an adequate means of determining age, the Bill will remove wrist X-rays as a prescribed procedure for determining whether people smuggling crew are minors.

              Further, by amending the Migration Act, this Bill will specify that the prosecution bears the onus of proof in establishing age. This is consistent with current practice and ensures that there is no ambiguity on who bears the onus of proof, where age is contested during a prosecution.

              These amendments will implement recommendations made by Senate Committee inquiries and the Australian Human Rights Commission Inquiry into age determination of people smuggling crew.

              This Bill also introduces amendments to the evidentiary process for people smuggling trials.

              It will enable uncontested facts, such as the location of a people smuggling vessel and number of persons on board people smuggling vessels, to be presented to the court through the use of an evidentiary certificate. This will reduce delays in people smuggling prosecutions and ensure that Navy and Customs personnel can focus on protecting Australia’s borders.

              This Bill ensures that courts are able to take time spent in custody for people smuggling offences, and time spent in immigration detention, into consideration during sentencing for people smuggling offences.

              The Bill also ensures that Australia can fulfil its responsibilities as a good international citizen by continuing to support international criminal law through assisting international criminal tribunals.

              The Bill contains proposed amendments to the International Transfer of Prisoners Act 1997 and the International War Crimes Tribunal Act 1995 to recognise the ‘International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals’.

              This new United Nations Tribunal was established by the United Nations Security Council to complete the residual work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

              These measures will ensure that Australia can provide the same level of assistance to the new United Nations Tribunal as it completes the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda as we can provide to those two Tribunals.

              This Bill will also amend the Australian Federal Police Act.

              Currently, the Australian Federal Police Commissioner has delegated his powers, functions and duties as a proceeds of crime authority to the Manager of Proceeds of Crime Litigation. The Manager leads a team of specialist litigation lawyers that take proceeds of crime action on behalf of the Commissioner.

              These amendments ensure that the delegation applies to an Australian Federal Police employee performing the duties of the Manager of Proceeds of Crime Litigation while that person is on leave. These amendments also ensure that, when the Manager of Proceeds of Crime Litigation takes leave and another Australian Federal Police employee performs their duties, the lawfulness of any decisions is not open to challenge.

              Additionally, under the Australian Federal Police Act, arrangements for the provision of policing and regulatory services by Australian Federal Police staff in the external Territories can only be entered into between the Minister responsible for the Australian Federal Police and the Administrator of that external Territory.

              The proposed amendments will extend this provision to allow these arrangements to also be entered into with the Minister responsible for the administration of an external Territory, in addition to the Administrator.

              An exception is provided in the case of Norfolk Island, where arrangements will continue to be entered into with the Administrator in recognition that the Territory is self-governing.

              Not all external Territories have an Administrator and, in those which do, the duties and responsibilities of the Administrator vary significantly.

              This amendment will allow greater flexibility in establishing arrangements for policing and regulatory services and better reflect the current governance arrangements in some of the external Territories, particularly in Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Island.

              In 2012 the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act, was amended to recognise new public sector anti-corruption arrangements in Victoria. Victoria has recently renumbered the relevant legislation and this Bill will amend cross-references in the Interception Act to ensure it correctly refers to the Victorian legislation.

              In conclusion, the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Law Enforcement Integrity, Vulnerable Witness Protection and Other Measures) Bill contains important measures that will ensure that Commonwealth criminal law remains up to date and effective, particularly in combating corruption and protecting the vulnerable victims of serious Commonwealth offences including human trafficking and slavery.

              MIGRATION AMENDMENT (OFFSHORE RESOURCES ACTIVITY) BILL 2013

              The purpose of this bill is to implement the Government's commitment to ensure that all Australian jobs are regulated under Australian migration laws. This is with a view to ensuring that the definition of the migration zone in the Migration Act 1958 (the Migration Act) captures foreign workers working in Australia's offshore resources industry.

              In May 2012, the Federal Court of Australia handed down its decision in the case of Allseas Construction S.A v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship [2012] FCA 529 (Allseas). The Court found that Allseas' pipe-laying vessels and the non-citizens working on these vessels were not within or working within the migration zone as defined under the Migration Act. This means that the workers on board those vessels did not require a visa.

              The offshore resources industry is a significant and growing contributor to Australia's economy, with billions of dollars of value added to the economy thousands of Australian workers employed.

              The Government recognises that in cases of skills shortages, industry needs to bring in foreign labour, but these are Australian resources and Australian jobs. The Australian community expects all Australian jobs to be regulated by Australian laws.

              The gaps in the Migration Act, exposed by the Allseas case, undermines the integrity of Australia's migration program and the visa regime regulating work entitlements.

              Without regulation there is a risk that foreign workers involved in the exploration and exploitation of Australia's natural resources and who therefore form part of the Australian employment sector are working under conditions and receiving wages that are below Australian standards. This reduces work opportunities for Australian citizens and permanent residents, as well as non-citizens who hold relevant visas permitting work.

              It also puts businesses that only engage workers who hold valid visas to work at a competitive disadvantage, leading to perverse incentives to stage as much development offshore as possible to avoid the requirements of the visa system.

              On 15 October 2012, the former Minister for Immigration and Citizenship announced that the government would legislate to amend the Migration Act and clarify the situation regarding workers in Australia's offshore maritime zones to address the decision of Allseas. Following this announcement, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship commenced a review on how best to do so.

              The Migration Maritime Taskforce (the Taskforce) was developed to conduct this review and explore options to determine the most appropriate way to ensure foreign workers in Australia's offshore maritime zones come within the ambit of the Migration Act.

              The Allseas decision reduced the number of workers in the offshore resources industry captured by the Migration Act. This, combined with other limitations in the Migration Act's operation offshore, has left a significant gap in Australia's ability to regulate the conditions in its offshore resources industry, and to regulate which foreign workers are employed on these valuable national assets.

              The Government is committed to maintaining the security of Australia's borders. Under the current legislative framework, the Government has an incomplete picture of the number and identity of foreign workers in Australia's offshore maritime zones. This is in part due to the absence of a regulated visa regime to capture those engaged in Australia's offshore maritime zones and the corresponding migration information.

              This incomplete information has security ramifications. The June 2012 Report of the Offshore Oil and Gas Resources Sector Security Inquiry recognised that visa security checks are one of the only ways Australia is able to examine non-citizen workers in this security-sensitive industry. While it recognised that visa character checks have their limits, in their absence, the Government has no information at all about some of these workers.

              During the development of its recommendations, the Taskforce sought extensive advice to ensure that the bill would adhere to relevant international conventions relating to the law of the Sea. In the context of international law, it has been confirmed that Australia has jurisdiction under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to apply its immigration laws to foreign nationals in the Australia's offshore resource industry.

              There has also been extensive stakeholder consultation on this problem, with the offshore resources industry, unions and other Commonwealth agencies. More recently, the government has consulted on the findings of the Taskforce and the issue which informed our decision to implement the recommendations of the Taskforce. More consultation will follow as we engage with stakeholders to develop supporting regulations for this change.

              There has been a lot of discussion on the best way to effectively address the problem of unregulated work in Australia's Offshore Resources sector. This bill deals with the practical actions that are necessary to create real, effective tools to deal with this problem.

              This bill implements the key recommendations of the Taskforce. The Taskforce found that any question as to whether a person was in the migration zone or not should not be solely dependent on where that person was physically located (for example, whether that person was physically on an Australian resources installation) but also dependent on the sorts of activities that person was conducting.

              The amendments in this bill will regulate foreign workers participating in offshore resources activities by deeming them to be in the migration zone, which enlivens the requirement for them to hold a visa under the Migration Act.

              In terms of selecting offshore resources activities, the Taskforce recommended the development of a legislative solution that would comprehensively administer the activities of the offshore resources industry comprising the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 and the Offshore Minerals Act 1994.

              In addition to these two acts, the bill will create a power for the Minister to make a determination in writing for the purposes of defining offshore resources activity.

              This will provide the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship with the flexibility to declare certain activities administered by other regulatory schemes as offshore resource activities for the purposes of the new deemed migration zone. This would include projects that take place in areas that are within the coastal waters of the States and the Northern Territory and not regulated at the Commonwealth level.

              The legislative measures will supplement the current framework under the Migration Act which already includes Australian resources installations and Australian sea installations as part of the migration zone.

              Together, this new comprehensive framework will ensure that workers in Australia's offshore resources industry are regulated under the Migration Act and required to hold specific visas. Individuals who engage in offshore resources activities in Australia's offshore maritime zones will be subject to existing compliance measures in the Migration Act that address breaches of work and visa conditions.

              A specifically-tailored visa pathway for offshore resource workers will be developed in conjunction with stakeholders to meet the needs of industry groups. It is proposed to prescribe this visa in the Migration Regulations 1994.

              More consultation will take place as this visa is developed to ensure that industry gets the flexibility it needs while ensuring that Australian conditions are protected.

              A series of sensible arrangements will be put into place, to ensure that the transition to the new framework is as smooth as possible. These include:

                  It is important to implement these changes as soon as possible to give certainty to the offshore resources industry and workers. The Government understands that industry needs certainty as they develop commercial contracts and run their businesses.

                  Where there are skills shortages and the Australian workforce cannot provide the required labour in Australia's offshore resource activities, there will always be a need for foreign workers.

                  However, this need should not be allowed to undermine Australian working conditions and should not happen without the oversight of Australian law as is currently the case.

                  These are Australian resources and Australian jobs. The resources are governed by Australian laws, the jobs should be too.

                  I commend the bill to the Senate.

                  PUBLIC GOVERNANCE, PERFORMANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY BILL 2013

                  The Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Bill 2013 (PGPA Bill) would, if passed, establish the framework necessary for a modern public sector; the framework needed for a modern government.

                  It will establish a Commonwealth financial framework that is simple, adds value for all and is easy to use. The PGPA Bill is the cornerstone of a broader reform agenda to modernise government and create a streamlined and adaptable public sector that is able to meet Australia's changing needs into the future.

                  The current Commonwealth financial framework, comprising the Financial Management and Accountability Act1997(FMA Act)and the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997(CAC Act), has been in place since 1998.

                  These Acts have served the public sector well. But in the 15 years since in the current financial framework commenced the demands on the public sector and the expectations of the community have changed significantly. We have seen our financial framework slip from world's best practice over a decade ago to being adequate today.

                  The deficiencies with the current framework will, over time, become an increasing drag on the performance of the public sector. For example, the current FMA Act is highly prescriptive, and yet at the same time is silent on the management of risk. The existing framework is also very linear – it is focused on straight lines of vertical authority and creates significant hurdles to citizen centric service delivery and collaborative working practices both across government and between the government and other sectors.

                  It is the view of this Government that the Commonwealth's financial framework should underpin a productive and innovative public sector that is able to adapt to increasing community demands and changing circumstances, while still retaining robust systems of management and accountability proportionate with the relevant level of risk.

                  Reflecting this, and recognising the short comings in the current framework, the Minister for Finance and Deregulation announced the Commonwealth Financial Accountability Review (CFAR) on 8 December 2010. CFAR was tasked with identifying opportunities for reform in the public sector financial framework that would improve productivity, performance, accountability and risk management.

                  Informed by significant consultation with the public, private, not-for-profit and academic sectors, CFAR identified opportunities for reform that would:

                            The PGPA Bill will provide the legislative architecture for maximising the opportunities identified by CFAR. The new single Act would strengthen public sector capability by creating a coherent and consistent approach to governance, performance and accountability within the Commonwealth. Unlike the current two Act framework, the PGPA Bill would, as far as practicable, apply a consistent principles-based framework to all Commonwealth entities.

                            There are several key principles that form the basis for the reforms proposed in the PGPA Bill. These principles are:

                            1. Government should operate as a coherent whole

                            2. Public resources are public resources, and a common set of duties should apply to all resources handled by Commonwealth entities

                            3. Performance of the public sector is more than financial

                            4. Engaging with risk is a necessary step in improving performance.

                            Briefly, the key elements of the PGPA Bill are:

                            First, independence:

                            The PGPA Bill does not alter the operational independence of entities, as provided in an entity's enabling legislation. Rather, the Bill emphasises the prominence of enabling legislation and seeks to create a consistent resource management framework applicable to all Commonwealth entities.

                            Second, uniform duties:

                            The new single Act would introduce a common set of duties. The duties would apply to all officials who use or manage public resources. This reflects community expectations that public resources will be managed prudently and efficiently.

                            A number of these duties align with the fiduciary duties contained in the Corporations Law, and have also been developed drawing on requirements under the Public Service Act Code of Conduct. The benefit of drawing from these sources is to promote mobility across the private, not-for-profit and public sectors, and also facilitate greater partnering across the leadership levels of entities. The benefits of this are already evident in the context of bodies under the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act.This Bill will ensure such benefits are achieved across the full spectrum of Commonwealth entities.

                            Third, planning and evaluation:

                            The PGPA Bill seeks to link the key elements of resource management to establish a clear operational cycle of planning, measuring, evaluating and reporting results to Parliament, Ministers and the public. In particular, the Bill will, for the first time, explicitly recognise the value-add of rigorous planning, performance monitoring and evaluation that goes beyond financial reporting. The Bill would achieve this by, among other things, requiring entities to develop a corporate plan to monitor, assess and report performance to a set of transparent standards.

                            Fourth, risk management:

                            Risk management is a key feature of modern management. The public sector deals with risk every day and at all levels, from senior managers to the front line of service delivery. Eli