Inquiry into the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission reform package
29 October 2026
On 21 October 2016, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) tabled their advisory report on the Inquiry into the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) reform package.
The Law Council made a substantial submission to the inquiry on Thursday, 30 July 2026. We were then invited to speak to the submission at a public hearing on 3 August. Tim Game SC, Richard Wilson SC and Dr Thomas Andrews represented the Law Council at a constructive public hearing. On 18 August, we lodged a supplementary submission in response to questions taken on notice from the Chair and Deputy Chair of the PJCIS.
The Law Council’s submission and evidence are cited extensively throughout the Committee’s report, with 11 of the 25 substantive recommendations broadly aligning with views that the Law Council put to the Committee.
Our submission focused on ensuring that the extraordinary powers provided to ACIC under the new framework were more consistent with the rule of law, more appropriately constrained, and sought to ensure that they were justified and proportionate to the gravity of possible harms that may befall the Australian community.
The ACIC reform package seeks to re-characterise the ACIC as an intelligence agency concerned with developing intelligence relating to “serious and organised crime”. It also preserves the other functions that the ACIC currently performs in relation to criminal intelligence assessments and nationally coordinated criminal history checks.
The ACIC currently possesses extraordinary powers analogous to those found in the ASIO Act. The ACIC reform package proposes different authorisation processes and thresholds for accessing extraordinary powers which include coercive questioning and production powers and the ability to authorise controlled intelligence operations. Unlike the ASIO Act powers, which have been infrequently used, the ACIC, by contrast, frequently uses its present coercive powers frameworks and controlled operations powers.
The Law Council is pleased to see this impact on the PJCIS review of these important proposals. We look forward to the Government’s response to this report. We look forward to working with the Parliament as the legislation progresses.
The Law Council was the only civil society organisation to formally make a submission to the PJCIS review.
Last Updated on 30/10/2026