Economic Policy Scrutiny Committee Inquiry into the Firearms Legislation Amendment Bill 2019 November 2019
Tabled paper 1423
Tabled Papers for 13th Assembly 2016 - 2020; Tabled Papers; ParliamentNT
2019-11-26
Tabled by Tony Sievers
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory under Standing Order 240. Where copyright subsists with a third party it remains with the original owner and permission may be required to reuse the material.
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Department of the Legislative Assembly
Darwin
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https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/755112
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/768771
Inquiry into the Firearms Legislation Amendment Bill 2019 16 Legislation currently being held by the Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee of the Victorian Parliament.9 Clause 4 Section 3 amended (Interpretation) Definition of criminal intelligence 3.6 As identified by CLA, there is a significant problem in the way criminal intelligence is defined in the Bill.10 The Serious Crime Control Act 2009 provides a detailed definition of criminal intelligence in section 6 and defines classified information as information the Commissioner classifies as criminal intelligence. The Bill defines criminal intelligence as information the Commissioner classifies as criminal intelligence under the Serious Crime Control Act 2009. Consequently, criminal intelligence would have a different meaning under the two different Acts, and what is referred to as criminal intelligence under the Firearms Act 1997 would be referred to as classified information under the Serious Crime Control Act 2009. This has particular repercussions for the interpretation of proposed section 49N which addresses how the Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NTCAT) must deal with classified information. For example, because the definition of classified information mirrors that of criminal intelligence, it would be logically impossible for NTCAT to consider classified information to not be criminal intelligence under proposed s 49N(2) and (3). 3.7 The Committee sought clarification from the Northern Territory Police Force (NTPOL) as to why the definition for criminal intelligence differs from that contained in the Serious Crimes Control Act 2009, and why the Bill attempts to apply the scheme in section 73 of the Serious Crimes Control Act 2009 to the NTCAT using the terminology of that Act rather than that proposed in the Bill. NTPOL advised that the variation in the definition of criminal intelligence was an unintended consequence of drafting. In response to the Committees query regarding the application of the scheme in s 73 to NTCAT, NTPOL advised that: The intention of the Bill was for the definition of criminal intelligence to align with the definition in the Serious Crime Control Act 2009. This is why the Bill applies the scheme from s73 of the Serious Crime Control Act 2009 to NTCAT appeals. We agree with the Scrutiny Committee that an interpretation issue is created by the current definition. Noting the interpretation issue, it would be appropriate for the definition in the Bill to be amended to align with the Serious Crime Control Act 2009 definition (either by including an identical definition or by defining criminal intelligence by reference to section 6 of the Serious Crime Control Act 2009).11 9 NSW Ombudsman, Review of police use of the firearms prohibition order search powers: Section 74A of the Firearms Act 1996, August 2016, https://www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/news-andpublications/publications/reports/legislative-reviews/review-of-police-use-of-the-firearms-prohibition-ordersearch-powers-august-2016; Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee (Victoria), Inquiry into Firearms Prohibition Legislation, https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/lsic-lc/inquiry/972 10 Submission 2 Civil Liberties Australia (CLA), pp. 2-3. 11 Northern Territory Police Force, Responses to Written Questions, pp. 3-4, https://parliament.nt.gov.au/committees/EPSC/106-2019#TP. https://www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/news-and-publications/publications/reports/legislative-reviews/review-of-police-use-of-the-firearms-prohibition-order-search-powers-august-2016 https://www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/news-and-publications/publications/reports/legislative-reviews/review-of-police-use-of-the-firearms-prohibition-order-search-powers-august-2016 https://www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/news-and-publications/publications/reports/legislative-reviews/review-of-police-use-of-the-firearms-prohibition-order-search-powers-august-2016 https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/lsic-lc/inquiry/972 https://parliament.nt.gov.au/committees/EPSC/106-2019#TP