Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment (Omnibus No. 1) Bill 2026

Senator POLLEY (Tasmania) (19:21): I'd like to speak in support of the Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment (Omnibus No. 1) Bill 2026, and I do that because this is really important legislation. It's a practical bill that is going to reinforce the responsibilities of law enforcement in this country. As Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement, I know and understand, along with all of my colleagues on that committee, how important this piece of legislation is.

It is a time to acknowledge the tireless work of the Attorney-General, Michelle Rowland. At its core, this bill is about ensuring that institutions charged with protecting the Australian community have the powers, procedures and legal clarity that they need to do their jobs effectively, lawfully and safely. In supporting this bill, I want to place on record my sincere thanks to the officers, the investigators, the analysts, the prosecutors and the law enforcement leaders who work tirelessly every single day to keep Australians safe.

We ask a great deal of them. They confront organised crime; illicit-drug trafficking; online exploitation of the most precious members of our community, our children; technology enabled offending; and cross-border criminal enterprises that are so much more sophisticated, well resourced and relentless. Yet day after day, often without recognition, they continue to work with professionalism, courage and determination.

They deserve not only our gratitude but also a legislative framework that supports them to do this very important work. This is especially true of the work undertaken to seize illicit drugs and keep drugs off our streets and out of the hands of criminal gangs. Every major drug seizure matters.

Every shipment that is intercepted at the borders, every distribution network that is disrupted, every criminal syndicate that is dismantled means less harm in our suburbs, less violence in our communities and fewer families living with the devastating consequences of addiction and organised crime. Organised crime affects too many people in our communities. I'm proud to be part of a government that has worked to bring about this bill—to bring about the changes that are needed so that our law enforcement can actually do their job to keep Australians safe.

There is no more important time than right now to support this bill, and I'm proud, as I said, to be part of a government that is leading the charge on this. There's so much more I could talk about, but it is important that we proceed to the next level of debate around this bill. I commend the bill to those opposite, because we on this side are a government that delivers real change for Australians.