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Review of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission reform package 2026

Submission Date: 30 July 2026

The Law Council of Australia provided a submission to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security’s review of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission reform package 2026. Although the package is comprised of two Bills—the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission Bill 2026 (Cth) (the ACIC Bill) and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (National Policing Information Charges) Bill 2026 (Cth)—the Law Council’s submission is focused exclusively on provisions of the ACIC Bill.

The ACIC Bill seeks to re-characterise the ACIC as an intelligence agency concerned with developing intelligence relating to “serious and organised crime”, while also preserving the important functions the ACIC currently performs in relation to criminal intelligence assessments and nationally coordinated criminal history checks.

The Law Council acknowledges that serious and organised crime represents a significant threat to the safety and wellbeing of the Australian community and imposes substantial costs across the economy.1 The economic cost was estimated by the Australian Institute of Criminology to be between $35.5 billion and $82.3 billion in 2023–24.2 The Law Council also shares the concerns expressed by the Director-General of Security about a degraded national security landscape and note his public acknowledgment of a relationship between transnational organised crime, state actors, and antisemitic violence and property damage in Australia.3

The Law Council supports, in principle, the clarification of the functions and purposes of the ACIC as a criminal intelligence agency with powers that are consistent with the rule of law, and demonstrably necessary and proportionate to the gravity of possible harms that may befall the Australian community. The ACIC Bill requires some refinement to meet that standard.

Indeed, neither the ACIC Bill nor its supporting materials contain a definition of “criminal intelligence”. While not strictly necessary to the operation of the proposed legislation, the absence of a clear articulation of a core concept, practice, and type of information sitting behind the legislation risks infusing the drafting with ambiguity of focus and limitation. Unlike the unique but nebulous concept of “security intelligence”—as expressed through the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s core definitions and functions,4 “criminal intelligence” retains a direct relationship to the criminal law. This relationship requires that appropriate consideration be given to the proper administration of an adversarial justice system that includes the constitutionally protected role of the courts, the preservation of fair trial rights, and suitable checks and balances.

The Bill does not adequately define the key term of “serious and organised crime”, a gateway definition that establishes the remit of the agency and justifies recourse to extraordinary intelligence collection powers with clarity and precision. Instead, the definition is drafted too broadly, confuses evidence of circumstances with the conduct being defined, invites unqualified speculation about possible conduct, and can be expanded by regulation.

The Law Council's submission recommends that additional work be undertaken to ensure that key definitions are clear and certain, appropriate, and strictly necessary to authorise and constrain the extraordinary powers of the ACIC.

1 Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, Opening the Books: The impact of serious and organised crime in Australia in 2025 (Report, 6 November 2025).
2 Alexandra Voce and Anthony Morgan, ‘The costs of serious and organised crime in Australia, 2023–24’, Australian Institute of Criminology (Statistical Report No. 55, 6 November 2025).
3 Mike Burgess, ‘Director-General's Annual Threat Assessment 2026’, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Speech, 24 June 2026) <https://www.asio.gov.au/resources/speeches-and-statements/director-generals-annual-threat-assessment-2026>.
4 Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979 (Cth) s 4 (definition of security) and s 17.

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Last Updated on 03/08/2026

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