This is the best summary I could come up with:

Labor and the Coalition teamed up to pass a bill retrospectively authorising potentially “unlawful” use of material gathered in special investigations by Australia’s most secretive law enforcement agency.

The bill, which was introduced on Tuesday and passed the Senate on Friday, was cited by the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, as an example of bipartisan cooperation during fierce political arguments on the unrelated issue of releases from indefinite detention.

The designation of an investigation as “special” enlivens the ACIC’s coercive powers to force people to produce documents or items or submit to an examination, with penalties of up to five years in prison for failure to attend and answer questions.

In December 2019 the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, convinced Labor to support an urgent bill to retrospectively validate ACIC special investigations, over fears one target was set to win a high court case against the extraordinary powers.

The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said the bill ensures the ACIC “can continue to undertake its vital statutory function to combat serious and organised crime in Australia and keep the Australian community safe”.

In February 2023 high court proceedings in a separate case were discontinued by consent, after a plaintiff known as JAM “raised constitutional issues” relating to charges that appeared on his AFP-issued police check.

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