Now lawCrime & Courts Introduced in the House of Representatives, 08 Oct 2025

Independent board now decides parole for federal prisoners

Until now the federal Attorney-General had the last word on parole for federal prisoners. The Attorney-General is the minister in charge of the law. Federal prisoners are people jailed for breaking national laws. Parole means leaving prison early. This law hands that job to a board of experts, the Commonwealth Parole Board.

Official name: Commonwealth Parole Board Bill 2025

Who it affects

• People in prison for federal crimes: A board of experts will decide if and when they get parole, and on what rules.
• Victims of federal crimes: The board can talk to victims. It can keep what they say secret if it could put someone at risk.
• The Attorney-General: They lose the power to make parole decisions. They can still ask the board for advice on things like moving prisoners.
• Police, prisons and courts: They can be asked, or ordered in writing, to give the board facts it needs.

A politician decided federal parole

When a court sends someone to prison, it often sets a minimum time. That is the least time the person must spend locked up. After that, they may be let out early on parole.

Parole means leaving prison before the full sentence ends. The person must follow rules and is watched over. They are still serving their sentence while on parole. If they break the rules, they can be sent back.

Federal offenders are people found guilty of crimes against national laws. The Parliamentary Library works for all MPs and takes no side. It gives examples like bringing in drugs, online child sex crimes, terrorism and welfare fraud.

Every state and territory already has an independent parole board. For federal prisoners, the Attorney-General made the decisions. The Attorney-General is the minister in charge of the law. A parole office in the minister's department helped. The Law Council of Australia is the national group for lawyers. It said the federal system was the only place where elected politicians made parole decisions.

This bill sets up the Commonwealth Parole Board to take over. The government says experts who can judge the risk to the public should make these decisions. A second bill changes the Crimes Act 1914, a main national crime law, so the board gets its actual powers.

What the board does

The board's main job is to make independent decisions about letting federal prisoners out on parole. It bases them on risk. It also manages people once they are out.

That includes giving parole and setting its rules. It also covers a special early release for unusual cases. The board will deal with people who break their parole rules. It will handle requests to travel overseas. It can change or cancel parole orders.

It also covers some people who were never sent to prison as punishment. Some were found too unwell to stand trial. Others were found not guilty because of mental illness. These people are held under federal law.

The Attorney-General keeps a few jobs. These include moving prisoners between states. They also include advising the Governor-General on pardons. A pardon officially forgives a crime. The Governor-General stands in for the King. The Attorney-General can ask the board for advice on those things. They cannot ask about the board's own parole decisions.

Who sits on the board

The board has a full-time head and a full-time deputy head. It also has at least 3 part-time members. They work when needed and are paid by the day. There is no top limit on how many there can be.

The Governor-General picks members on the Attorney-General's advice. Each person must have the right skills or background. The law lists areas such as law, policing, victims of crime, prisons and medicine. It also lists mental health, social work and the study of crime.

The head or the deputy head must have been a lawyer for 5 years or more. The board as a whole must look as much like the Australian public as it can.

Members serve up to 5 years at a time and can be picked again. Their pay is set by an independent body that sets pay for top public jobs.

Keeping the board independent

The law says nobody can tell the board what to decide. That includes the government.

Members must tell the minister in writing about anything that could clash with their duties. The head and deputy head cannot take other paid work without the minister's okay. Part-time members cannot take paid work that clashes with the role.

A member can be sacked for bad behaviour. They can also be sacked if they cannot do the job or go broke. The head or deputy can be removed for missing 14 days in a row without leave. A part-time member can be removed for missing 3 meetings in a row.

Members and staff cannot be sued themselves for things they do honestly on the job. People who think they were harmed can still sue the federal government itself.

How the board decides

The head sets how the board works and can write guidelines. A meeting needs at least 3 members. One must be the head or the deputy. Decisions go by majority vote. The head or deputy must be on the winning side.

The guidelines can ask for more votes in hard cases. The government's notes on the bill give one example. Every member might have to agree before letting out someone found guilty of child sex crimes.

The board can decide things without a meeting. The head or deputy can act alone in urgent cases. One example is cancelling parole without warning to protect the public. They can also approve travel or fix errors in a parole order.

The board can talk to prisoners and victims, but it does not have to. Say a prisoner's plan for where they will live after release is unclear. The board might call them in to ask about it.

Sometimes both the head and deputy have a clash of interest, or members are not free. Then the head can ask the boss of the Attorney-General's Department to sit in. That department supports the Attorney-General. Its boss would sit in as a member.

Sharing information

The board needs facts to judge risk. Its officers can ask police, lawyers who run cases for the government, prisons, courts and watchdogs for facts. They can also order them in writing to hand facts over. That order beats other laws.

One example is a prisoner's criminal record from the Australian Federal Police, the national police force. Another is a parole report from a state prison service. Courts do not have to hand over papers about cases that are still running.

The board can pass its own facts to those agencies when they need them. For example, it can tell a state prison service that a federal prisoner got parole.

Some facts are marked sensitive. They could harm a police case, put someone's life or safety at risk, or harm national security. The board cannot share them with anyone outside that group of agencies. That can include the prisoner. Say a victim tells the board in secret about a risk of family violence. That would stay secret.

Reports and a review

Each year the head must write a report on what the board did. It must say how many cases it handled. A public version without sensitive details goes to Parliament. It also goes on the board's website.

The whole parole system must be reviewed between 3 and 4 years after the law starts. The review will look at whether the rules work and how the board is set up. The report must go to Parliament.

Start date

The government planned for the board to start in 2026. The law starts on a date the government sets. If no date is set within 12 months of it becoming law, it starts by itself the next day.

The bill went into the House of Representatives, Parliament's main house, on 8 October 2025. The House passed it on 26 November 2025. The Senate, Parliament's second house, passed it on 1 April 2026. It made 2 changes the government asked for. The House agreed to them the same day.

The Governor-General signed it into law on 8 April 2026. It is now the Commonwealth Parole Board Act.

How they voted

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

• Bill page on aph.gov.au
• Text of the bill
• Explanatory memorandum
• Bills Digest

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