Crime Point-in-Time Service Updates

The Crime Point-in-Time Service has been updated to include the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment Act (No. 1) 2018 (Cth) (Act 74 of 2018), the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Powers, Offences and Other Measures) Act 2018 (Cth) (Act 75 of 2018), the Legislation Amendment (Sunsetting Review and Other Measures) Act 2018 (Cth) (Act 78 of 2018) and the Enhancing Online Safety (Non-consensual Sharing of Intimate Images) Act 2018 (Cth) (Act 96 of 2018).

Act 74 of 2018

The Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment Act (No. 1) 2018 extends the operation of a range of critical counter-terrorism provisions in the Criminal Code, the Crimes Act 1914 (Crimes Act) and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979 to ensure that law enforcement and security agencies continue to have access to these provisions to respond to the ongoing threat of terrorist activities in Australia.

The Act will extend for a further three years the following regimes which are scheduled to sunset on 7 September 2018 (the counter-terrorism provisions):

• the control order regime in Division 104 of the Criminal Code
• the preventative detention order (PDO) regime in Division 105 of the Criminal Code
• the declared areas provisions in sections 119.2 and 119.3 of the Criminal Code, and
• the stop, search and seize powers in Division 3A of Part IAA of the Crimes Act.

Act 75 of 2018

The Act contains a range of measures to improve and clarify Commonwealth criminal justice arrangements, including amendments to:

• clarify the functions of the Australian Federal Police to enable cooperation with international organisations, and non-government organisations
• clarify the custody notification obligations of investigating officials when they intend to question an Aboriginal person or Torres Strait Islander
• create separate offence regimes for ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ for the disclosure of information relating to controlled operations in the Crimes Act 1914
• increase the maximum applicable penalties for breach of the general dishonesty offences in the Criminal Code Act 1995
• remove an obsolete reference to the death penalty in the Crimes Act 1914
• strengthen protections for vulnerable witnesses and complainants in Commonwealth criminal proceedings in the Crimes Act 1914
• authorise collection, use and disclosure of information for the purposes of preventing, detecting, investigating, or dealing with fraud or corruption against the Commonwealth and establish safeguards to ensure these measures do not unduly interfere with privacy, and
• permit the New South Wales Law Enforcement Conduct Commission to use and disclose spent conviction information under the Commonwealth spent convictions scheme.

Act 78 of 2018

This Act makes amendments to various Acts, including the Legislation Act 2003 and the Acts Interpretation Act 1901, to implement those recommendations of the Report on the Operation of the Sunsetting Provisions in the Legislation Act 2003 that require legislative action.
This Act also makes other minor and technical amendments to the Legislation Act and the Acts Interpretation Act to clarify their operation and resolve inconsistencies between provisions.

Act 96 of 2018

The Enhancing Online Safety (Non-consensual Sharing of Intimate Images) Act 2018 (the Act) amends the Enhancing Online Safety Act 2015 (Online Safety Act) to implement the Australian Government’s commitment to introduce a civil penalty regime to combat the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. 

The primary measures in the Act:

• Prohibit the non-consensual posting of, or threatening to post, an intimate image on a ‘social media service’, ‘relevant electronic service’, e.g. email and SMS/MMS, or a ‘designated internet service’, e.g. websites and peer to peer file services. 
• Establish a complaints and objections system to be administered by the Commissioner. Victims or a person authorised on behalf of a victim will be able to lodge a complaint directly to the Commissioner where there is reason to believe that an intimate image has been posted or threatened to be posted without consent.
• Facilitate the removal of an image where a person initially consented to an image being posted and then changed their mind and now wishes to have the image removed, by enabling them to give the Commissioner an ‘objection notice’. An objection notice may also be lodged on behalf of that person so long as that person has been authorised to do so. 
• Introduce a civil penalty regime to be administered by the Commissioner. The Act will trigger the Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act 2014 (Regulatory Powers Act) and allow the Commissioner to utilise a series of graduated responses to address this issue. These responses include issuing infringement notices, seeking a civil penalty order from a relevant court, enforceable undertakings, or seeking an injunction for contraventions of the civil penalty provisions.

The amendments made by these Acts have been updated in the Point-in-Time Crime Service current to 12 September 2018. (NB: Subscription required).

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