Counter-Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017

Overview

This bill gives Queensland Police broader powers to respond to terrorist attacks, bomb threats, hostage situations and other critical incidents. Police can search phones and require passwords, photograph and fingerprint people in an emergency area, use tracking and surveillance devices more freely, and destroy explosives on the spot. It also makes preventative detention orders easier to obtain and allows senior sergeants to declare emergencies.

Who it affects

Anyone caught up in a declared police emergency, people subject to preventative detention orders, and high-risk suspects who police want to arrest. Police gain significant new powers, while civil liberties groups have flagged privacy and self-incrimination concerns.

Key changes

• Police can search your phone and laptop during a declared terrorist or 'extraordinary' emergency, and can require you to provide passwords or unlock a device with your fingerprint (maximum penalty for refusal: 40 penalty units or 1 year's imprisonment, with self-incrimination not a valid excuse)
• New 'extraordinary emergency' powers let police control movement, search people without a warrant, take biometric information and demand ID during serious non-terrorist emergencies involving explosives or threats to life
• A commissioned officer can authorise a covert tracking device for up to 48 hours (renewable) to help safely arrest high-risk people, though the device cannot be installed inside a dwelling
• Preventative detention orders can now be issued on the basis that a person is 'capable' of a terrorist act within 14 days (instead of proving the attack was imminent), and police can enter dwellings at any hour on a 'reasonable suspicion' the person is there
• Approved police officers can destroy explosives on site, including in ways that may structurally damage buildings, with the general compensation scheme still applying
• Senior sergeants (not just inspectors) can declare an emergency situation, and declared areas can now follow a moving person, vehicle or vessel
• Surveillance information gathered under emergency authorisation can be shared with ASIO immediately, without waiting for a judge's post-approval
• The Queensland Police Welfare Club Act 1970 is repealed because the club was wound up over a decade ago