Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Anti-People Smuggling and Other Measures Bill 2010. Protecting Australia’s national security and the integrity of our borders is the highest responsibility of the Australian government. In representing a coastal based seat that already has sizeable gaps in employment and infrastructure, I feel a very strong community expectation that I rise to support any government bill that will strengthen the integrity of Australia’s borders. We are privileged to live in Australia. My constituents are even more privileged than most to live on the beautiful Central Coast. We have a robust democracy and a free market based economy with a strong safety net for those who fall on hard times. We offer the greatest lifestyle the world has to offer. It is no surprise that people beyond our shores aspire to become Australians.

People smuggling refers to the organised illegal movement of groups or individuals across international borders, usually on a payment-for-service basis. The International Organisation for Migration estimates that about 4 million people are moved illegally each year. There is a supply and demand system at work in the people-smuggling business. You have people who are desperate to get into Australia by any means possible and then the people smugglers who will risk these people’s lives to get them here. It has to be entirely clear, both from Australia and internationally, that people smuggling is not an acceptable form of commerce. It must be clear that Australia will not tolerate a soft approach to people smuggling.

People smuggling endangers vulnerable lives and endangers our security. Our nation has a duty to protect the integrity of our borders and immigration systems. There are a number of strategies that successive governments have built upon to stop people smuggling. This bill is amongst many bills that have been introduced into successive parliaments to combat smuggling.

Australian agencies and overseas missions work closely to ensure a coordinated approach to prevent people smuggling. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship and all Australian agencies at posts maintain close ties with local counterparts in South-East Asia to prevent people-smuggling activities and to support displaced populations. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship works closely with the Australian Federal Police to prosecute people smugglers.

In the national security statement on 4 December 2008, the Prime Minister appointed the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service as the single point of accountability for matters relating to the prevention of maritime people smuggling. The collocation of agencies and capabilities in this way is a concept strongly supported by the Homeland and Border Security Review. The government has reinvigorated efforts to work closely with regional countries to prevent and deter people smuggling and prevent attempts at dangerous sea journeys by people seeking to enter Australia unlawfully. The government is looking to extend assistance to those countries to develop their capacity and enhance projects in home and transit countries to assist people displaced by conflict who may be vulnerable targets of people smugglers and traffickers.

If Australia does not have community confidence in border protection and immigration systems, we run the risk of the emergence of extreme parties and policies. Without decisive action and community confidence we give those with divisive barrows to push a free run. We have seen both here and abroad the emergence of a far right political group with a race based agenda. The integrity of our borders is not an issue of race or fear of what is foreign. What is at issue is the nation’s ability to control the rate of immigration based on a national need. It is about our nation’s ability to control what comes into our country in terms of going around our vigorous Customs and quarantine systems. It is about controlling the risks individuals have to our national security. The integrity of Australia’s borders is synonymous with the integrity of our national security. People smugglers are a direct affront to our ability to control immigration intake, and are a direct affront to our way of life. They put desperate people’s lives at risk through their grubby trade. People smuggling is an illegitimate industry that has no place in our region.

The purpose of the Anti-People Smuggling and Other Measures Bill 2010 is to strengthen the Commonwealth’s anti-people-smuggling legislative framework by putting in place laws that further criminalise people-smuggling activity to enable prosecution of a broad range of conduct, including the consequences of that activity. One action that we are taking through this bill is the introduction of a new offence to those providing material support and resources towards a people-smuggling venture. The offence will apply to a person who provides material support or resources to another person or organisation where the provision of the support or resources aids, or there is a risk that the provision of the support or resources will aid, the commission of an offence of people smuggling.

The maximum penalty for this offence will be imprisonment for 20 years, or 2,000 penalty points or both. Prescribing a maximum penalty still allows judicial discretion to take account of the circumstances of the case. The penalty sits appropriately alongside penalties for comparable financing related offences such as the offence of providing support to a terrorist organisation, which holds a maximum penalty of 25 years. It is about time the federal government extended the reach of our powers to extend severe punishment to those who want to perpetuate this vile industry.

The Migration Act currently contains mandatory minimum penalties for the aggravated offences of people smuggling—a five-year sentence with three years non-parole, or an eight-year sentence with five years non-parole for repeat offenders. The bill extends the application of the mandatory minimum penalty to the new offences of people smuggling involving death, people smuggling involving exploitation or danger of death or serious harm and providing support or resources for people-smuggling activities.

We have seen some terrible examples in recent history of people smugglers’ lack of respect for human lives. We have seen the complete lack of appreciation for the lives of children, many from desperate situations. The higher mandatory minimum sentence of eight years and the non-parole period of five years will automatically apply to the offences of people smuggling resulting in death and exploitation or danger of death or serious harm, irrespective of whether it was a repeat offence. This is to reflect the serious nature of these offences.

The bill will also extend the higher mandatory minimum sentence and non-parole period to people-smuggling offences involving children and to a person being convicted of multiple people-smuggling offences. The measures will also improve whole-of-government efforts to combat people smuggling, including ensuring appropriate investigative tools are available to law enforcement and national security agencies and providing greater flexibility for Australia’s national security agencies to support anti-people-smuggling activities.

The act will also harmonise people-smuggling offences between the Migration Act and the Criminal Code to strengthen the criminal framework for greater consistency. The legislative framework for criminalising people smuggling is contained in the Migration Act and the Criminal Code. Together, the legislation covers ventures entering Australia—in the Migration Act—and ventures entering foreign countries, including those that transit to Australia—in the Criminal Code. The bill inserts into the Migration Act the aggravated offence of people smuggling involving exploitation or danger of death or serious harm. This aggravated offence is currently contained in the Criminal Code.

However, the Migration Act does not provide for these aggravated circumstances involved in people smuggling, and therefore the provision does not apply to ventures seeking to enter Australia. Inserting this offence into the Migration Act will ensure that this aggravated offence consistently applies to all people-smuggling ventures. The bill will also make a number of amendments to provide for greater harmonisation between the people-smuggling offences in the Criminal Code and those in the Migration Act, such as standardising language and the description of offences. People smuggling is a serious and organised crime that involves organised criminal syndicates which depend on enablers and facilitators. Targeting the organisers and financers of people smuggling operations is an important element of a strong anti-people-smuggling framework.

The bill will also provide a greater capacity for the Australian government agencies to investigate and disrupt people-smuggling networks. The bill will make associated changes to the Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and TIA Act to enable law enforcement agencies and security agencies to have consistent access under both acts to the appropriate investigative tools in relation to the existing people-smuggling offences, which are serious offences under the TIA Act and the new offences in this bill.

The bill will also amend the ASIO Act to enable ASIO to use its intelligence capabilities to respond to people smuggling and other serious threats to Australia’s territorial and border integrity. This will enable ASIO to play a greater role where appropriate in support of whole-of-government efforts to combat people smuggling and other serious threats to Australia’s territorial and border integrity. The bill will also align the definition of foreign intelligence in the TIA Act more closely with the Intelligence Service Act 2001. We have an opportunity to effectively deal with people smuggling in our region in a way that was not possible for many years. It was very heartening to hear the Indonesian President last week give the commitment that they will criminalise people smuggling in Indonesia. This is a major breakthrough: the Indonesian President was the first leader of that country to address our parliament and only the fifth foreign leader to address a joint sitting of parliament. This demonstrates how important Indonesia is to Australia. Our region’s future will depend largely on the cooperation between states not only in trade but also in defeating causes of common problems. It is in both Australia’s and Indonesia’s interests that we beat people smugglers.

Australia is an active participant in a number of international programs that work to combat people smuggling. These include the Inter-Governmental Consultations on Asylum, Refugee and Migration Policies in Europe, North America and Australia; the Asia-Pacific Consultations on Refugees, Displaced Persons and Migrants; the Bali Ministerial Regional Conference on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime; and the Pacific Rim Immigration Intelligence Officers Conference. The Bali Ministerial Regional Conference on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime is a multinational initiative launched in 2002 aimed at combating people smuggling, trafficking and related transnational crime in the Middle East, Asia and Pacific regions. While the Bali process built on existing bilateral cooperation, its success is due to the active involvement of ministers and law enforcement agencies from 42 countries. As a consequence of initiatives from the Bali process, regional countries have been active in preventing and deterring the activities of people smugglers and the movement of potential illegal immigrants towards Australia. A number of other initiatives were also pursued which limited the capacity of people smugglers to successfully undertake their activities. Nonetheless, people smugglers remain active in the region and in source countries and continue to target vulnerable people for possible movement to Australia.

The Rudd government is determined to make the investments needed to protect our borders and strengthen Australia’s national security. Passage of the legislation through both houses in the 2010 autumn sittings is important. This is to ensure strong deterrence measures are in place and to maximise Australian government agency efforts to investigate and disrupt people-smuggling networks. Internationally we must ensure that people smuggling is not a lucrative, low-risk activity for people smugglers; it must be a crime that attracts great penalties. People smugglers must know that if they continue their trade that risks children’s lives, the book will be thrown at them and they will spend a great deal of their lives in jail. That is why this bill is so important. I commend the bill to the House.

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