Secrecy Offences in Part 5.6 of the Criminal Code

47 Secrecy Offences in Part 5.6 of the Criminal Code 2 About the Law Council of Australia The Law Council of Australia represents the legal profession at the national level; speaks on behalf of its Constituent Bodies on federal, national, and international issues; promotes and defends the rule of law; and promotes the administration of justice, access to justice and general improvement of the law. [...] - Each of the offences contained in Part 5.6 of the Criminal Code should require the prosecution to prove—as an element of the offence—that the disclosure occurred ‘without lawful authority’ because it is essential to establishing the criminality of the conduct. [...] In the context of a ‘deemed harm’ offence, without an express harm requirement, the circumstance of whether the document legitimately belongs to the protected category of information is central to determining the criminality of the conduct. [...] Crucially, because the scope of the offences in s 122.1 of the Criminal Code depend on the ‘functions’ of the relevant domestic intelligence agencies, uncertainties in defining the limits of what activities are within the scope of the functions of a particular intelligence agency mean the offences are overly broad and lack certainty. [...] As the scope of the offences in s 122.1 of the Criminal Code depend on the ‘functions’ of the agencies the result is that the scope of the offences in s 122.1 of the Criminal Code could be changed without parliamentary involvement.