Tuesday, 13 May 2025

 David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:55): (1604) My adjournment matter this evening is for the attention of the Minister for Police and is related to regulations that are currently under consideration for the private security sector. It is not my normal practice to make submissions on consultations for regulations, but I did so recently. Last year this Parliament passed the Private Security and County Court Amendment Act 2024. There was no opposition to the bill, and it passed on the voices. Reviewing the debate in Hansard, however, I am now left wondering whether other members realised that this bill would have a significant impact on the private investigator sector. Whilst there was a lot of discussion about private security, there was not a single mention of private investigators. My office has recently met with representatives from this industry who have seen the draft regulations under this act and are very concerned. They believe that they are not fit for purpose and the reforms passed last year create a situation where the problems it seeks to address were happening in a completely different sector. Many private investigators work part-time as subcontractors. They are registered with different companies and take jobs as they come up. The flexibility suits some people who may work around caring arrangements. It also caters to the nature of the work, where different jobs require different specialisations and experience. If the draft regulations are made as written, they will now have to get a private investigator licence and also a private security business licence simply to continue doing the work that they were already doing. This is all a needless duplication and over-regulation of a sector that has done nothing wrong and is seemingly being punished for the bad practices that occurred in a different sector.

The final report on the review of the sector focused mainly on security guards, crowd control and other aspects of private security. Private investigators barely got a mention and were not covered in the regulatory impact statement or the minister’s second-reading speech. On top of the needless licence duplication, the draft regulations also impose obligations that do not make sense for private investigators, such as the requirement to complete a comprehensive risk management plan for any security activity. This is completely unworkable for private investigators, who often work in dynamic environments where they may not even be able to predict where they will be, let alone speculate on potential risks. This sector is a very important one. They are often involved in cases that fall through the cracks, such as financial crime, stalking, fraud and theft, where the police cannot or will not investigate, often presenting evidence briefs that lead to charges and convictions. My request for the minister is to simply exempt private investigators from the regulations.