Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

This bill seeks to simply put a superficial gloss on actions that are not being undertaken by this government—and this government has form on doing this. And I make reference to the government’s and the Prime Minister’s form on this issue, particularly in relation to his appalling stand on aid and abortion. But I will move on.

In addition, serious and organised criminal groups pose a significant risk to Australian border protection by engaging in the illicit cross-border trafficking of a range of goods. Such goods include drugs, precursor chemicals, tobacco and cigarettes, performance and image enhancing drugs, counterfeit goods, wildlife and currency. Mr Jeffrey Buckpitt, the National Director of Intelligence and Targeting at Customs, outlined to the Joint Committee on the Australian Crime Commission on 29 September 2008 the Customs role in combating serious and organised crime at the border, which encompasses the detection and interdiction of illegal movements across the border, the investigation of certain border offences, and cooperation and collaboration with partner law enforcement and regulatory agencies to disrupt and dismantle serious and organised criminal activity.

A warning has come from the Australian National Council on Drugs that Australia is at risk of an influx of heroin, thanks to the surplus in supply from Afghanistan and Burma. The council says that, after a few years of heroin drought, the drug is once again readily available on Australia’s streets. The Australian Bureau of Crime Statistics has been looking at the border detections, and they were the highest on record last year. That was coupled with an 80 per cent increase in the weight of the drug seized in the previous year. Considering opium cultivation in neighbouring South-East Asia has increased by 22 per cent after six years in decline, it is of grave concern to the coalition that the Labor government is not taking tough measures to stem the flow of drugs onto Australian streets.

The Prime Minister speaks about national security, but his government is delivering budget cuts in that very area. Efficiency dividends have seen $24 million cut from the operating budget of the Australian Federal Police. His budget cuts have seen 169 Australian Federal Police staff take voluntary redundancy packages. Fifteen staff from the Australian Crime Commission have also take voluntary redundancies, with another 50 staff required to leave in the next 12 months. The ACC has had its budget cut by $2.7 million between 2007-08 and 2008-09. The Rudd Labor government needs to explain how it can say it is not soft on border protection, when it is cutting resources to the law enforcement and security agencies that play a crucial role in protecting our borders.

Labor are all front and no shop on border protection, and that is what this bill says. They can change their name as often as their leader changes his ideologies, but it does not change the fact that Labor are soft on border protection and the Australian people should not be fooled by a simple name change. I am sure they will not be, because the Australian people are very perceptive on these matters and, at the end of the day, they are looking for action.

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