Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I present the report of the Australian Parliamentary Delegation to Canada, the United States, Italy, Austria, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands from 12 April to 3 May 2009, and I ask leave of the House to make a short statement in connection with the report.

Leave granted.

I rise to speak to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Crime Commission delegation report, because it is one that I would commend to each and every member of this House. The basis of the report was to look at international experiences of, and trends in, serious and organised crime and also the legislative responses to it being taken by other countries. We examined the legislative responses to organised crime in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, Canada and Italy, specifically its anti-Mafia response.

Perceptions count for a lot—they certainly do in politics. At the moment, people would not think that we have a significant issue with serious and organised crime in this country. Regrettably, sometimes perceptions are wrong and that can possibly lead to a lax response. One of the consistent things that we found during the course of the delegation was that, since the rise of global terrorism, the diversion of law enforcement resources into counterterrorism has been disproportionate to other areas, such as local policing. Local police agencies, aided by the requests of local political operatives, tend to want to concentrate on the immediate issues such as street and domestic based crimes. Without exception, every jurisdiction that we visited made the point that the difference between what proportion of resources is directed at domestic crime and what is directed at counterterrorism is significant. That void is there—but now it is being taken up as the incubator for serious and organised crime. When we came to power we were conscious of that. One of the electoral commitments that we made was for 500 extra policing positions in the AFP.

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