EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Australian Federal Police Act 1979
Australian Federal Police (Discipline) Regulations
(Amendment)
STATUTORY RULES 1985 NO. 292
These amendments comprise part of a group of amendments to the Complaints (Australian Federal Police) Act 1981, the Australian Federal Police (Discipline) Regulations and the Complaints (Australian Federal Police) Regulations. The amendments, suggested partly by the Australian Federal Police Association and partly by the Federal Police Disciplinary Tribunal in its 1982/83 Annual Report, are intended to ensure that the criminal standard of proof i.e., proof beyond reasonable doubt, should apply to all disciplinary cases, and that criminal proceedings should take precedence over disciplinary proceedings arising from the same circumstances.
The proposed amendments to the Australian Federal Police (Discipline) Regulations provide that:
• the Commissioner of Police shall not institute or continue disciplinary proceedings against a member where criminal proceedings are commenced against that member in respect of the same matter;
• the Commissioner shall not institute disciplinary proceedings against a member who has been found guilty of a criminal office in relation to the same matter otherwise than for the disciplinary offence of being ‘found guilty by a court of an offence against a law of the Commonwealth, a State, a Territory or another country’;
• the Commissioner’s power to institute or continue disciplinary proceedings shall not be limited where criminal proceedings against the member in question have not resulted in a finding of guilt; and
• The standard of proof required in a determination by the Commissioner as to whether a member is guilty of a disciplinary offence is proof beyond reasonable doubt. The standard of proof to be applied by the Commissioner is not, at present, prescribed. He applies such standard as appears reasonable given the circumstances of each case. The settlement of a uniform standard is considered desirable in the interests of consistency, and as a reflection of the potential seriousness of disciplinary proceedings for individual members of the Australian Federal Police who are often called upon to react quickly in difficult or hazardous circumstances. A similar amendment, binding the Federal Police Disciplinary Tribunal, is to be made to the Complaints (Australian Federal Police) Regulations.
The amendments also ensure that notification procedures incorporated in the Australian Federal Police (Discipline) Regulations under which members are advised of proposed penalties and of their rights to make a submission as to penalty, are consistent with the similar provisions of the Complaints (Australian Federal Police) Act 1981.