Mr PYNE (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) (5:12 PM) —I present a supplementary explanatory memorandum to the bill and I move the government amendment:

The National Security Information Legislation Amendment Bill 2005 was introduced into parliament on 10 March 2005. As foreshadowed earlier, the amendment I am moving rectifies a drafting error that could lead to a misinterpretation of the term ‘civil proceeding’ as used in the bill. Item 1 amends schedule 1, item 11 of the bill to remove the references to a federal criminal proceeding and to a contempt proceeding. ‘Civil proceeding’ will mean any proceeding in a Commonwealth, state or territory court except a criminal proceeding.

Omitting the word ‘federal’ corrects a drafting oversight that may have meant that a civil proceeding under the bill could include a criminal proceeding under a state or territory law. The intention underlying the initial inclusion of the wording relating to contempt was to ensure that where contempt was not an ordinary criminal offence created by statute but within the inherent power of the court to punish, it should be treated as a civil proceeding. On further consideration it is apparent that statutory contempt offences will fall within the definition of a criminal proceeding under the National Security Information Criminal Proceedings Act 2004. By contrast, contempt punishable under a court’s inherent powers will fall outside the definition of a criminal proceeding and would therefore constitute a civil proceeding. The reference to a contempt proceeding in the definition of civil proceeding is therefore unnecessary.

Question agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.