Tasmania Introduces Bill To Update Legislation As A Result Of ACC and CrimTrac Merger
Wednesday 21 November 2018 @ 1.46 p.m. | Crime | Legal Research
On 28 August 2018, the Australian Crime Commission Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2018 (“the Bill”) was introduced to Tasmania Parliament’s House of Assembly ("the Assembly") by the Hon Michael Ferguson.
The Bill has passed the Assembly and is currently before the Legislative Council where it is awaiting further discussion.
Background
Due to the 1 July 2016 merger between the Australian Crime Commission (“ACC”) and the CrimTrac organisation, Commonwealth legislation was introduced into Parliament to manage the consequences of such a merger between the two entities. For legal purposes, the Australian Crime Commission is still known as the ACC.
The ACC now performs the previous functions of CrimTrac, including providing national police information systems and services to police and other eligible bodies and nationally co-ordinated criminal history checks to accredited agencies.
Functions of the ACC
In a Report produced by the Federal Government, the functions of the ACC were outlined at [para 37.4]:
Overview of the Amendments
Due to the merger of the two organisations, a number of consequential amendments are required to Tasmanian acts that authorise, or facilitate, the release of information to CrimTrac, allowing those bodies to instead send that information to the ACC.
The proposed amendments will amend the Tasmanian legislation by removing references to “CrimTrac”, and where required, replacing them with references to the “ACC”. The Bill also includes transitional arrangements to ensure that any agreements made between Tasmanian government agencies and CrimTrac are also deemed to be equivalent agreements with the ACC. Amendments to Tasmanian legislation currently affected by the merger of the two entities are:
- Section 3 and Schedule 1 to the Annulled Convictions Act 2003;
- Section 83 to the Firearms Act 1996;
- Section 58 to the Forensic Procedures Act 2000; and
- Section 12 to the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (Tasmania) Act 2010.
TimeBase is an independent, privately owned Australian legal publisher specialising in the online delivery of accurate, comprehensive and innovative legislation research tools including LawOne and unique Point-in-Time Products. Nothing on this website should be construed as legal advice and does not substitute for the advice of competent legal counsel.
Sources:
Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission – About Us (Accessed 20 November 2018)
Australian Crime Commission Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2018 (Tas) - Bill and supporting information available from TimeBase LawOne Service