Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment (Omnibus No. 1) Bill 2026, Export Control Amendment (Clarifying Obligations Relating to Registered Establishments) Bill 2026
Senator McCARTHY (Northern Territory—Minister for Indigenous Australians) (18:40): I move: That these bills be now read a second time. I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard. Leave granted.
The speeches read as follows— CRIMES AND OTHER LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (OMNIBUS NO. 1) BILL 2026 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: Police Powers and Warrants 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 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 Amendments 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 aligning the Commonwealth's approach with the approach taken by states, territories and overseas partners. Schedule 3: Director of Public Prosecutions Amendments Thirdly, the Bill enhances the efficient running of Australia's federal prosecution agency by clarifying and modernising the Director of Public Prosecution 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: Extradition Amendments 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: Telecommunications Amendments 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.
EXPORT CONTROL AMENDMENT (CLARIFYING OBLIGATIONS RELATING TO REGISTERED ESTABLISHMENTS) BILL 2026 Australia's agricultural exports are forecast to reach around $80 billion this financial year and support a wide range of agricultural businesses across the country. The government plays a key role in facilitating this trade through the assurances we provide to importing countries.
Our regulatory system demonstrates the high standard of Australian agricultural goods, and our government-to-government communications assure importing countries that their requirements are being met. These requirements are ever-evolving, and our regulatory approach needs to adapt accordingly. The Australian Government is conducting an export assurance reform project that will strengthen the regulatory oversight of goods including wool, honey, pet food, skins and hides, rendered goods, pharmaceuticals, food and beverages, stock feed and feed additives.
Through this reform process, the government has identified amendments required to the Export Control Act 2020, to ensure that the export regulatory framework continues to function as intended. Many places where goods are processed and prepared for export are regulated as registered establishments under the Act. In these cases, the Act stipulates that all operations for prescribed goods at the establishment must be included in the registration.
This includes operations that do not otherwise require registration, creating excessive regulatory burden for Australian businesses. The Bill will remove this burden, by enabling occupiers of registered establishments to conduct these operations without contravening the Act. The new provisions would ensure that only operators who carry out export operations that are not covered by their registration but should be, are penalised.
This would align penalty provisions across the Act and its rules. Without this amendment, export operations across some of Australia's key agricultural industries could be forced to complete extensive processes to register operations that do not, in themselves, justify registration. This Bill will remove all that red tape for industry, and increase government efficiency.
The Bill also broadens the scope of what documents the government can issue under the Act to support trade. This addresses a growing gap where documents that our trading partners require are not catered for under our legislation. These amendments ensure that the government can provide the support needed to maintain and grow Australia's market access for all agricultural exports.
The Bill underpins the government's commitment to support the growth of Australia's agricultural sector by increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of our export regulatory system, and paving the way for broader reform across a range of commodities. Ordered that further consideration of the second reading of these bills be adjourned to the first sitting day of the next period of sittings, in accordance with standing order 111.
Ordered that the bills be listed on the Notice Paper as separate orders of the day.