{"id":"C2016A00044","name":"Australian Crime Commission (National Policing Information Charges) Act 2016","slug":"australian-crime-commission-national-policing-information-charges-act-2016","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":"44 of 2016","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":436282,"registerId":"C2016A00044-fast-fetch-1775953527137","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-12","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Australian Crime Commission (National Policing Information Charges) Act 2016","content":"---\nmeta-content-style-type: text/css\nmeta-content-type: application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8\n---\n\n?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\" standalone=\"no\"?>\n\n![](image.001.png)\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nAustralian Crime Commission (National Policing Information Charges) Act 2016\n\n \n\nNo. 44, 2016\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nAn Act to impose national policing information charges as taxes, and for related purposes\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nContents\n\n1 Short title\n\n2 Commencement\n\n3 External Territories\n\n4 Property of a State\n\n5 Definitions\n\n6 Imposition of national policing information charges\n\n7 Charge amounts\n\n8 Exemption from charge\n\n \n\n![](image.001.png)\n\n \n\n \n\nAustralian Crime Commission (National Policing Information Charges) Act 2016\n\nNo. 44, 2016\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nAn Act to impose national policing information charges as taxes, and for related purposes\n\n[Assented to 5 May 2016]\n\nThe Parliament of Australia enacts:\n\n1  Short title\n\n  This Act may be cited as the Australian Crime Commission (National Policing Information Charges) Act 2016.\n\n2  Commencement\n\n (1) Each provision of this Act specified in column 1 of the table commences, or is taken to have commenced, in accordance with column 2 of the table. Any other statement in column 2 has effect according to its terms.\n\n \n\n- Commencement information\n- Column 1 Column 2 Column 3\n- Provisions Commencement Date/Details\n- 1. The whole of this Act At the same time as the Australian Crime Commission Amendment (National Policing Information) Act 2016 commences.However, the provisions do not commence at all if that Act does not commence. 1 July 2016\n\n\nNote: This table relates only to the provisions of this Act as originally enacted. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this Act.\n\n (2) Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this Act. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this Act.\n\n3  External Territories\n\n  This Act extends to every external Territory.\n\n4  Property of a State\n\n  This Act does not impose a tax on property of any kind belonging to a State.\n\n5  Definitions\n\n  In this Act:\n\nBoard has the same meaning as in the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002.\n\nnational policing information has the same meaning as in the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002.\n\nnational policing information charge means a charge imposed by section 6.\n\nproperty of any kind belonging to a State has the same meaning as in section 114 of the Constitution.\n\n6  Imposition of national policing information charges\n\n  National policing information charges are imposed on the following:\n\n (a) applications to the Australian Crime Commission for national policing information services;\n\n (b) provision by the Australian Crime Commission of national policing information services.\n\n7  Charge amounts\n\n (1) The amount of a national policing information charge for an application for, or the provision of, a kind of national policing information service is the amount determined by the Minister by legislative instrument.\n\n (2) The Minister may determine different amounts (including a nil amount) of national policing information charge for different classes of persons in relation to the same kind of service.\n\n (3) In determining a national policing information charge, the Minister must have regard to any recommendations of the Board made under subsection 7C(7) of the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002.\n\n8  Exemption from charge\n\n  National policing information charge is not payable by a person in relation to a service if the provision of the service to the person is subject to a fee charged under section 15 of the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002.\n\n[Minister’s second reading speech made in—\n\nHouse of Representatives on 3 December 2015\n\nSenate on 4 May 2016]\n\n(221/15)\n\n \n","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"Unauthenticated. Configure AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY or use a provider module. Learn more: https://ai-sdk.dev/unauthenticated-ai-gateway","source":"analysis-cron"},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This Act is narrowly focused and remains within its original purpose of creating a charging power for national policing information services. It does not broaden ACC functions or add unrelated regulatory regimes. Its primary features — ministerial pricing by legislative instrument, ability to vary charges by class, and an exemption for services already charged under ACC Act section 15 — are consistent with a cost-recovery or user-pays design and do not indicate a substantial scope expansion beyond that core purpose."},"complexity_factors":["Short Act: 8 sections only","4 defined terms in the Act’s interpretation section, with key terms borrowed from the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002 (cross-reference)","Cross-references to multiple external provisions: subsection 7C(7) and section 15 of the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002, and section 114 of the Constitution","Major substantive power delegated to the Minister via a legislative instrument (section 7) — introduces administrative variability and conditional complexity","One-layer exemption structure (section 8) that relies on classifying services as subject to existing ACC Act fees","Commencement is conditional on another Act’s commencement, adding a minor temporal dependency (section 2)","Few conditional branches or nested exceptions — generally linear mechanics"],"plain_english_summary":"**What this law does, in plain English**\n\n- The Act creates a system of charges (called “national policing information charges”) for asking the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) for certain policing information and for the ACC providing those information services (see section 6).\n\n- The amounts charged are not set in the Act itself. Instead the Minister decides the charge amounts by a legislative instrument (a delegated rule) and may set different amounts for different classes of people, including a nil charge (section 7(1)–(2)). The Minister must have regard to any recommendation from the ACC Board under subsection 7C(7) of the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002 when fixing amounts (section 7(3)).\n\n- The charge does not apply where the same service is already subject to a fee charged under section 15 of the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002 (section 8). The Act also says it does not impose a tax on property that belongs to a State (section 4) and it extends to external Territories (section 3).\n\n**Who is affected**\n\n- People or organisations that apply to, or receive services from, the ACC that fall within the definition of “national policing information” (section 6 and definitions in section 5, which point back to the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002).\n\n- The Minister (who sets the charges by legislative instrument) and the ACC (which implements charging and collection).\n\n- State governments are protected from having tax imposed on State property (section 4).\n\n**How it works, mechanically**\n\n- The ACC’s existing definition of “national policing information” applies (see section 5). When someone applies for or is provided such information, a charge may apply (section 6).\n\n- The Minister sets the dollar amounts by legislative instrument; those instruments can differentiate between classes of persons (section 7(1)–(2)). The Minister must consider the ACC Board’s recommendations under ACC Act subsection 7C(7) (section 7(3)).\n\n- If the same service is already charged under ACC Act section 15, this new charge does not apply to avoid duplicate charging (section 8).\n\n**Stated purpose and a practical test against costs and incentives**\n\n- The Act’s stated mechanism is to impose charges for ACC policing information services. This appears designed to allow the ACC (through the Commonwealth) to require payment from users of its information services rather than leaving cost recovery unspecified in primary legislation.\n\n- Who pays: end users of ACC information services (applicants or recipients) unless the service is already charged under ACC Act section 15 or the Minister sets a nil charge for their class (sections 7 and 8). States are not treated as taxable for property (section 4).\n\n- Who decides: the Minister sets amounts by legislative instrument, having regard to Board recommendations (section 7). That gives the executive significant discretion to vary amounts quickly without amending the statute, subject to the normal parliamentary oversight of legislative instruments (disallowance mechanisms).\n\n- Incentives and trade-offs: charging can raise revenue or signal the marginal cost of providing information, but it also increases the price of access to ACC services. That may reduce demand for some requests, shift behaviour to other information providers, or impose administrative costs on the ACC and users for billing and classification of persons. Differentiated charges allow targeted access pricing (for example, lower or no charge for some public agencies) but also creates complexity in administration (section 7(2)).\n\n- Compliance and implementation risks: the Act relies on delegated instruments and cross-references to the ACC Act for definitions and fee interactions (sections 5, 7, 8). This creates dependency on administrative rules and Board advice; unclear classifications or inconsistent application could create disputes about whether a charge applies to a particular request.\n\n**Key cross-references and practical limits**\n\n- Definitions of “Board” and “national policing information” are taken from the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002 (section 5).\n- The Minister must have regard to Board recommendations under subsection 7C(7) of the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002 when setting amounts (section 7(3)).\n- If a fee under section 15 of the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002 already applies to a service, the national policing information charge does not apply (section 8).\n- The Act does not create a tax on State property (section 4) and applies in external Territories (section 3).\n\n**Practical bottom line**\n\n- This is a narrowly framed law that allows the Commonwealth (through the Minister and the ACC) to charge for national policing information services; it leaves the detailed pricing and classifications to delegated instruments and Board recommendations. The main effects are to transfer the cost of certain ACC information services from unspecified sources to users (unless exempted), to give the Minister discretion over pricing, and to require the ACC and users to operate a charging regime consistent with the Act and related ACC provisions (sections 6–8)."},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation remains tightly focused on its original purpose of imposing charges for national policing information services. The scope has not expanded beyond this specific taxation mechanism."},"complexity_factors":["Only 8 sections total, with minimal conditional logic","Just 3 defined terms in section 5, all referencing external legislation rather than creating new definitions","No nested exceptions or complex cross-referencing structures","Simple imposition structure: section 6 creates the charge, section 7 sets the mechanism for determining amounts, section 8 provides a single straightforward exemption","Single legislative instrument power (section 7) with only one constraint (must consider Board recommendations)","No operative provisions with multiple sub-paragraphs or cascading conditions"],"plain_english_summary":"This law creates a **tax (called a 'national policing information charge')** that people or organisations must pay when they ask the Australian Crime Commission for police information services, or when the Commission provides those services.\n\n**What it does:**\n- **Imposes charges** on applications for national policing information and on the actual provision of those services by the Australian Crime Commission (ACC).\n- **Lets the Minister set the price** for these charges through a legislative instrument (a type of official rule), with different prices possible for different types of people or organisations.\n- **Requires the Minister to listen to the ACC Board** when setting these charges.\n- **Protects State governments** — the charges can't be applied to property belonging to a State.\n- **Prevents double-charging** — if someone already pays a fee under a different section of the ACC Act, they don't pay this new charge too.\n\n**Who it affects:**\n- Anyone applying to the ACC for national policing information (typically police agencies, government bodies, and possibly private entities with legitimate needs).\n- The ACC itself, which collects these charges.\n\n**Why it matters:**\nThis law helps fund the national policing information services that police forces across Australia rely on to share criminal intelligence and data. By making these charges a tax, the law ensures they are constitutionally valid (taxes are a clear federal power) and creates a sustainable funding model for critical law enforcement infrastructure."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/australian-crime-commission-national-policing-information-charges-act-2016","history":"/api/acts/australian-crime-commission-national-policing-information-charges-act-2016/history","analysis":"/api/acts/australian-crime-commission-national-policing-information-charges-act-2016/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/australian-crime-commission-national-policing-information-charges-act-2016/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/australian-crime-commission-national-policing-information-charges-act-2016/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/australian-crime-commission-national-policing-information-charges-act-2016/documents"}}