Mr McCLELLAND (Barton) (1.28 p.m.)—I rise to speak on the Crimes Amendment Bill 2005. My comments will be brief. The bill is straightforward but nonetheless very important. It seeks to amend part 1AC of the Crimes Act 1914 that deals with assumed identities. Assumed identities are vital for police and law enforcement work in controlled and undercover operations. The reality is that while those who are engaged in crime can, through the very fact of engaging in that activity, represent to some extent how naive they are, they are not entirely naive in wanting verification of the identity of those who may impact on their operations. In that context, fake identification is occasionally necessary to substantiate before those criminals that an undercover officer is the person that they are purporting to be.

This is not something that is used lightly, and there is a reporting mechanism in place and criminal punishments for the misuse and abuse of the system of assumed identities. For the financial year 2003-04, for example, only 71 authorisations were issued. Perhaps in the coming year we may see a more widespread use of these identities as security issues come to light. In particular, the controversy that was before the parliament and the media yesterday concerning controlled operations at our airports is perhaps a continuing trend and a situation where we will see these assumed identities being necessary to assist those officers who are operating under cover. However, that is obviously going to be an operational matter for the Australian Federal Police to determine.

The measures relating to assumed identities were passed, with Labor support, under the Measures to Combat Serious and Organised Crime Act 2001. This bill does not seek to modify either the existing requirements for authorisation or the offences, reporting or accountability measures of that regime. There are already provisions in the act that criminalise the misuse of assumed identities under section 15XR of that act. We believe the provisions introduced in this bill will strengthen the regime that is already in place.

Previously, requests by the Commonwealth for false identification for the purpose of assumed identity were handled in an informal manner. However, the states are now formalising this process through their own legislation. Accordingly, the Commonwealth must now clarify its legislation to recognise the new state regimes and to ensure, for instance, that there is not a situation where an officer operating under an assumed identity is, as a result of oversight, subject to some liability under the new state regimes. Therefore, the bill introduces definitions of ‘state agency’ and ‘territory agency’ and a new section 15XMA to ensure that any request for this type of false-identification assistance from a state or territory issuing agency must be complied with at the request of the Commonwealth to the extent that the laws of the state or territory require that to occur.

Importantly, these arrangements are reciprocal. The states and territories police authorities can also gain access to federal documentation for the purpose of undercover law enforcement work. That is something that I think all Australians will recognise as cooperation that is certainly highly desirable. In summary, this bill is relatively straightforward. While it is straightforward, it is nonetheless important and Labor is pleased to be able to assist the government in securing its passage through the houses.