Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Amendment (Registration of Foreign Proceeds of Crime Orders) Bill 2011. The coalition supports the efforts of this bill to strengthen our existing legal structures to register proceeds of crime orders. It follows the initiatives of the previous government in its resolve in these matters. We are always happy to support the government when they move in a direction that is consistent with the policies and practices that we ourselves employed when we were in government. Our issue comes when they decide to walk away from measures that have proved in the past to work and to go in different directions.

The topic of this speech is not that of broader border protection issues. The government obviously chose to go in a different direction on border protection three years ago, and we can see the consequences daily. But, on this matter, the government have decided to go in a similar direction to the coalition. Obviously, when they are engaged in good policy in a favourable direction in these matters they will get the support of this side of the House. The aim of these amendments is to uphold our current frameworks for rendering assistance to foreign countries, international tribunals and the International Criminal Court in registering proceeds of crime orders and to ensure these laws continue to function as they were originally intended. At its heart, this bill is about protection. It is about strengthening our borders and protecting the Australian people from subversion and violation by international crime syndicates. Where once we spoke of borders as clear pencil lines on a map, we are now called to defend not only the literal but also the figurative borders: expansive matrixes and parameters within electronic global-banking interfaces.

Organised crime is insidious. Up to $15 billion each year is lost because of it, according to the Australian Crime Commission. At least $10 billion a year is ripped from the spreadsheets of Australian businesses—money that could be spent across a dozen worthy legal sectors. The member for Gorton was absolutely right when he observed:

… money is the lifeblood of organised crime and if we can stop the money flow we can stop organised criminals in their tracks.

It is vital that Australia retains the right to confiscate assets and profits resulting from crimes committed overseas. Our borders must be stronger and we must be ever vigilant of the dangers that lurk not only beyond our checkpoints and ports but also within.

We talk increasingly of the global village. We celebrate the breaking down of boundaries and the ease with which we can travel the globe. But, as geographic barriers are increasingly porous and transcended, there is a pressing need to ensure border protection and law enforcement remains an utmost priority. We cannot do that without the international cooperation that this bill strives to sustain. Criminal syndicates have become increasingly sophisticated in their use of technology and the intricacies of their arrangements. Assets derived from criminal activities and nefarious dealings are often moved offshore to avoid detection and confiscation. Gone are the hackneyed days where smugglers gathered in hazy dockside inns swapping wads of cash or pockets of doubloons. Nowadays, the criminals are not so easily defined or discernible. But where a person has committed an offence in a foreign country and the proceeds from that crime are stashed in Australia, we must be able to enforce foreign orders and to take action. I agree with the assertion from the minister at the table that Australia must not be seen as a safe haven for criminals and their ill-gotten gains. This nation is not a secret storage space for tainted money and we must actively work to ensure we do not become a new overseas tax-haven bank account.

The coalition have a historic commitment to border protection and the fight against international organised crime, as outlined by my colleague the member for Stirling and the shadow minister in this area. We are proud of this legacy and we continue to uphold and cement it. It was the Howard government who established the Australian Crime Commission in 2002, a cooperative venture to pool the resources of the state and Federal Police to investigate serious crime. The ACC remains a successful venture, despite the Labor government's attempts to sabotage it by slicing funding and cutting staff. That same government has axed 340 jobs from the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service over two years. A recent Customs' annual report showed that just 4.3 per cent of sea cargo is X-rayed and just 0.6 per cent of sea cargo physically examined. Yet the number of reported consignments for air and sea cargo has leapt significantly and will continue on that upward trajectory for the next four years. Less cargo will be inspected in spite of the burgeoning volume. By reducing the amount of cargo checked, Labor are leaving us open and exposed. As someone who represents a part of Sydney that is very close to Port Botany and also Sydney airport, many of my constituents are involved in the logistics and transport business, and in activities around the waterside as well as the airside, and it is important that we have these matters fully attended to.

Meanwhile, 11,533 people have arrived on 230 boats since Labor started to unwind the coalition's proven border protection and asylum policies in August 2008. The AFP have their hands full dealing with the incidents that this government's attitudes have created. By unwinding the border protection regime that they inherited, they have put inordinate stress on those agencies and those officers tasked with protecting our borders, and the government are making the job far more difficult than it ever needed to be. The officers in the Australian Federal Police and in our Customs service do an outstanding job for Australia, but they struggle under extreme pressure. And I extend that same commendation to the officers who work in our immigration dep­artment. These are difficult jobs and the processing and challenges that they are now confronted with because of the changes that this government have made to border protection policy have only made their job even more difficult. While measures such as the one brought by the government to the House in this bill today are supported and are worthy, it does not take away from the fact that this government's other policy failures are making the jobs of those who are entrusted with protecting our borders more difficult.

We need to send a strong and clear message when it comes to organised crime and border protection, not a hastily cobbled together, cut-and-paste model that enc­ourages people to flout the law, more than being a deterrent. I remind the House that the Commonwealth Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 was introduced and passed under a coalition government. The act provides a scheme to trace, restrain and confiscate the proceeds of crime against Commonwealth law. The act also enables confiscated funds to be given back to the community to lessen the impact of crime upon Australia. The coalition remain committed to the strategy of being able to confiscate assets and profits resulting from crimes committed overseas. Under the law as it currently stands, we have a framework in place to work with foreign countries and confiscate benefits derived from foreign criminal offences where those assets are located in Australia.

Part VI of the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 1987 allows Australian courts to register and enforce orders issued by a foreign court. These foreign orders include restraining, confiscation and pec­uniary penalty orders over property derived from serious criminal offences. Once a foreign order is registered here, it can then be enforced as if it were an Australian order made under the Proceeds of Crime Act. But legislation is not static; it lives, it breathes and good legislation evolves with time as it is tried and tested. The 2009 High Court decision pertaining to New South Wales proceeds of crime related provisions shone a light on a potential legal conflict that could undermine these laws. This bill seeks to remedy that loophole.

We need to ensure the functions imposed on a court reflect the nature of judicial functions under chapter III of the Constitution. The amendments will allow a court greater discretion in determining whe­ther a foreign order should be registered and enforced in Australia or whether to hear an application for registration on an ex parte basis. The amended provisions will also necessitate a court to register a foreign order unless it considers it contrary to the interests of justice to do so.

We do not approve of the reckless way in which this Labor government has softened Australia's border protection strategies. We have said many times that they inherited a solution and they created a problem. The government have cut vital resources at a time of great need and destabilised well-established and proven policies for the sake of appeasing one element of their cons­tituency. But we welcome this bill as a step, albeit small, in the right direction—a dir­ection that was established by the coalition government.

Where this government heads in the right direction, they will get our support. The government seem to be seeking the adulation of the opposition almost on a regular basis, waiting for the coalition to support them. I would have thought that a government that was confident in its own policies would not constantly be seeking opposition support and adulation on a daily basis. We are happy to support them when they get it right. But if we think they are going in the wrong direction, we will say so. That is what an opposition does. It is an opposition's resp­onsibility to hold the government to account for good policy and not engage in any sort of bipartisan hubris purely for its own sake but embrace a spirit of bipartisanship where we firmly believe that the direction the government are taking is the right one.

On this occasion with this bill, they are heading in the right direction and they will receive support. If they would only head in the right direction in so many other areas, they might get the coalition's adulation that they crave. This government have become obsessed with the opposition. Every time they come to this place at question time or on other occasions, they spend their entire time debating the opposition about the opposition. They are full of advice for the opposition about how to be an opposition. I am sure the Australian people would love to give—

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