Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment (Omnibus No. 1) Bill 2026
Ms ROWLAND (Greenway—Attorney-General) (09:24): I move: That this bill be now read a second time. The Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment (Omnibus No. 1) Bill 2026 supports the effective administration of government by updating and improving key pieces of crimes-related legislation. Modernising and clarifying this legislation is critical to ensuring law enforcement and related agencies are effective and efficient in performing their important functions, while maintaining appropriate safeguards.
This is critical to supporting these agencies to keep the community safe. Schedule 1: p olice p owers and w arrants Firstly, the bill will modernise law enforcement powers and procedures to allow our agencies to operate more efficiently, without reducing important safeguards on the use of these powers. The bill will amend the Crimes Act to: enable the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to exercise critical powers at the new Western Sydney International Airport, ensuring a consistent policing and security framework at major airports nationwide, and modernise the way law enforcement agencies can apply for search warrants and assistance orders, to better align with today's digital operating environment, without affecting the substantive thresholds and safeguards around these processes.
The bill will also amend the Crimes Act and the Surveillance Devices Act to ensure the AFP and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) can continue to access powers that the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor considered 'effective', 'critical' and 'powerful' capabilities to identify and disrupt serious technology enabled criminal activity.
Extending these powers to 4 September 2029 will allow for substantive reforms to be considered in line with the recommendations of the monitor's review as part of broader electronic surveillance reform. In line with the monitor's recommendations, the amendments will also remove the ACIC's ability to obtain data disruption warrants to better align with its functions as a criminal intelligence agency.
Amendments to the Measures to Combat Serious and Organised Crime Act will ensure Australian Capital Territory police can continue to access the Commonwealth's pre-charge detention and investigation scheme. Schedule 2: Criminal Code a mendments Secondly, the bill will make critical amendments to support efficient and effective prosecutions of serious drug offences by streamlining key processes and enhancing consistency across criminal justice systems, while maintaining appropriate safeguards and ensuring procedural fairness.
These amendments will: enable prosecutions of serious drug offences to be conducted more efficiently by providing evidence that is often unchallenged and uncontroversial by way of an evidentiary certificate, while retaining the ability for the defence to challenge that evidence, and modernise the way in which drug threshold quantities are measured, by replacing the current purity approach with mixture quantity requirements, reflecting that illicit drugs and precursors are rarely trafficked in their pure form.
This will better align the Commonwealth's approach with the approach taken by states, territories and overseas partners. Schedule 3: Director of Public Prosecutions a mendments Thirdly, the bill enhances the efficient running of Australia's federal prosecution agency by clarifying and modernising the Director of Public Prosecutions Act,including by streamlining the process for managing an actual, perceived or potential conflict of interest identified by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The amendments will enable the Attorney-General to authorise a sufficiently senior person to exercise powers and functions ordinarily exercised by the director, where it is not appropriate for the director to do so because of the conflict of interest. Schedule 4: e xtradition a mendments Fourthly, the bill clarifies and modernises the Extradition Actto streamline processes and ensure law enforcement officers are equipped with appropriate powers to effectively perform their functions.
Amendments to the Extradition Act will: clarify that, once a person waives extradition, they are to remain in custody until they are physically surrendered to the requesting country, or released under an appropriate order, and provide police officers with the power to enter premises and use reasonable force when executing an extradition arrest warrant, consistent with equivalent powers under the Crimes Act in relation to executing arrest warrants, reducing operational risks to police and the community.
These amendments will improve both the efficiency and safety of extradition processes. Schedule 5: t elecommunications a mendments Finally, the bill will amend the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act to update terminology to reflect changes in Victorian legislation in relation to Integrity Oversight Victoria. Conclusion It is vital we keep our crimes legislation under constant review and update it when required to support the efficient and effective operation of the criminal justice system.
The Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment (Omnibus No. 1) Bill 2026 does just that. It modernises, streamlines and clarifies important provisions, ensuring law enforcement and related agencies can efficiently and effectively perform their critical functions. I commend the bill to the chamber.
Debate adjourned.