The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Serious Drugs, Identity Crime and Other Measures) Bill 2012 was introduced in the House of Reps on Wed 10.10.2012.
It amends the Australian Federal Police Act 1979, Crimes Act 1914, Crimes (Superannuation Benefits) Act 1989, Criminal Code Act 1995, Customs Act 1901, and Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner Act 2006 to, among other things:
- expand the scope of existing identity crime offences, as well as enact new offences for the use of a carriage service (such as the internet or a mobile phone) in order to obtain and/or deal in identification information where a person intends to commit, or facilitate the commission of, a Commonwealth, State, Territory or foreign indictable offence. The penalty for these offences will be 5 years imprisonment;
- clarify that superannuation orders (providing for the forfeiture and recovery of employer funded superannuation benefits that are payable, or have been paid, to Commonwealth employees who have been convicted of corruption offences by a court and sentenced to more than 12 months’ imprisonment) can be made in relation to all periods of a person’s employment as a Commonwealth employee, not only the period in which a corruption offence occurred. This is designed to ensure that the legislation applies equally to all employees who have committed a corruption offence while an employee, regardless of whether an employee has one continuous period of employment or more than one separate periods of employment; and
- increase the value of the penalty unit for Commonwealth criminal offences from $110 to $170. It also provides for the value of the penalty unit to be reviewed every 3 years.
[LTN 196, 10/10]