Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

In view of the time, I will keep my next series of questions relatively short. The first concern ACLEI, and I refer specifically to the David Standen issue in New South Wales. It is of course a New South Wales Crime Commission issue, but it highlights the very real importance of funding and supporting the government bodies and instrumentalities that oversee our crime-fighting and law enforcement agencies. John McMillan, the former head of ACLEI—I am sure the minister knows what ACLEI stands for, but for the record it is the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity—said in July last year that ACLEI needed an extra 50 staff to be able to do its job properly, and a substantial injection of new funds. I ask the minister: how many staff does ACLEI have now and how many staff does he believe ACLEI will be able to employ under the funding promised in the budget? I would also ask him how he feels about the promise made by Arch Bevis, the member for Brisbane, when he was homeland security spokesman:

We intend to give teeth to this tiger … There can be no cloud of uncertainty hanging in the  public’s mind when it comes to the probity of Australia’s law enforcement bodies, particularly those charged with the fundamental task of national security.

Of course, we would agree with that. It appears that the increase in the budget for ACLEI is only about $750,000 in 2008-09. That will certainly not employ the extra 50 staff that John McMillan, the former head of ACLEI, indicated were necessary. A recent newspaper article said of the current head of ACLEI, Philip Moss, that in Senate estimates hearings recently:

… he admitted that the ACLEI did not have the resources to conduct proper investigations of suspected corrupt officers.

In a recent joint committee appearance, Mr Moss said:

… it will be a quantum leap for this organisation when we get to that stage—if we get to the stage beyond responding to notifications and referrals and get to the point where we more proactively engage these intrusive powers in the detection of corruption and corrupt conduct.

In fact, John McMillan, the former head, said that, because of the resources they had, they could not possibly undertake the kinds of activities you would expect of such an organisation, such as tapping lines. Minister, how can the public have confidence in the government’s commitment to supporting the oversight bodies of our law enforcement agencies if they are starved of resources and funds, particularly in the light of the case in New South Wales concerning David Standen, which is not the first case of a breach of trust by a member of an organisation that should know a great deal more about it. For the minister’s elucidation—you seem slightly confused—David Standen is the member of the New South Wales Crime Commission who has been charged with offences.

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