Bill
Criminal Code Amendment (Impersonating a Commonwealth Body) Bill 2017
passed, as at 2018-06-21. Attorney-General portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Attorney-General
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2017-09-13
- second reading — 2017-09-13
- second reading — 2018-02-05
- other — 2018-02-06
- second reading — 2018-02-06
- second reading — 2018-02-06
- other — 2018-02-06
- third reading — 2018-02-06
- introduced — 2018-02-07
- second reading — 2018-02-07
- second reading — 2018-05-10
- second reading — 2018-05-10
- third reading — 2018-05-10
- third reading — 2018-06-18
- third reading — 2018-06-18
- passed — 2018-06-18
- royal assent — 2018-06-21
Divisions
- The majority voted in favour of a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2018-05-10.187.1) to agree with the main idea of the bill. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read the bill [for a second time](https://www.peo.gov.au/learning/fact-sheets/making-a-law.html). This means that they can now discuss it in more detail. ### What is the bill's main idea? The [bill was introduced](http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:legislation/billhome/r5973) to: * *create new offences "for a person recklessly or intentionally representing themselves to be, or to be acting on behalf of, or with the authority of, a Commonwealth entity or service"; and* * *introduce "a new [injunction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injunction) power to allow authorised persons to seek injunctive relief to prevent a person from engaging in conduct in contravention of the new offences."* Read more in the [bills digest](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1718a/18bd069). — 2018-05-10, Senate: affirmative, ayes 60, noes 10
- The majority voted in favour of passing the bill. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read the bill [for a third time](https://www.peo.gov.au/learning/fact-sheets/making-a-law.html). Since the bill has already passed in the House of Representatives, it will now become law. ### What does the bill do? The bill [will create two new offences](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1718a/18bd069) for people *who engage in conduct which results in a representation that the person is, or is acting on behalf of, a Commonwealth body.* It was introduced because: > *During the 2016 federal election, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) campaign included a claim that the Coalition intended to privatise Medicare. This claim was dubbed ‘Mediscare’ by the media and was judged to have assisted the ALP position during the election period. Aspects of the ‘Mediscare’ campaign included the distribution of cardboard flyers containing messages which resembled Medicare cards, voice mail messages and bulk SMS text messages.* Read more about the background to the bill [in its digest](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1718a/18bd069). — 2018-06-18, Senate: affirmative, ayes 46, noes 10
Plain-language summary
No machine-written summary in this export.
Sources
em
digest
billhome
frl act