Assistant Director – Criminal Justice Policy & Legislation

Job Description

Employment Opportunity

The Criminal Justice Policy and Legislation Section (CJPLS) is seeking candidates to fill 1 x EL1/Assistant Director vacancy. Successful candidates may be placed in a merit pool to be considered for other vacancies arising the Criminal Justice Division and across AGD.

CJPLS is a high-performing team responsible for delivering priority criminal justice policy and legislative reform projects, and provides advice to the Attorney-General and across government on a range of domestic policy issues relating to criminal justice issues.

Our team advises on a wide range of priority policy and legislative proposals from all across government, often within compressed timeframes. We work closely with other Commonwealth departments and agencies, state and territory prosecutorial and policing agencies and the courts to identify challenges impacting the criminal justice system and develop innovative solutions to combat these challenges. Where legislative change is required, we lead the development of legislation and regulations to give effect to these solutions and assist in their implementation following passage or tabling.

Key projects include working on major reforms such as Australia’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing regime, and electronic surveillance framework – simplifying and modernising complex legislation to lessen the regulatory burden on industry and enhance privacy protections respectively. Other reforms include enhancing regulatory frameworks and law enforcement powers to ensure that they are fit for purpose in the modern era, including updating existing firearms and illicit drugs regulations. The team also supports the broader department and other portfolios with criminal law reform, including developing a new Commonwealth Workplace Protection Order framework.

How you can help us make a difference

We are looking for experienced senior policy officers that are keen to influence Commonwealth criminal justice policy and legislative development. We are a close-knit and high performing team that has a culture of continuous improvement and provides a supportive environment for all our team members, no matter where and how we work.

Our ideal candidates will:

have excellent critical analysis and problem-solving skills
be clear and concise written and oral communicators
build positive and productive working relationships internally and across government
be supportive and effective supervisors for junior staff
be able to independently manage a variety of key projects
have excellent attention to detail
be curious, willing to learn and adapt to changing workloads and priorities.

A legal qualification is desirable but not essential for these roles.