Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs ) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian Crime Commission will do this work with other state and territory police forces as well as Customs and Border Protection, CrimTrac, AUSTRAC and the AFP. They will also harness information from the USA's online firearm-tracing system.

I am asked about alternative approaches. After five weeks the opposition have finally caught up and they are asking for their own inquiry. It begs the question: what would their investigation do? Would it have coercive powers? No, it would not. Would it have the powers of a standing royal commission? No, it would not. Would it have the power to conduct tracing analysis of illegal firearms? No, it would not. It begs the question: why have a 'toothless tiger' inquiry when you already have the most powerful law enforcement agency in the country on the job? I might remind you of this quote, Mr Speaker:

The idea that you have got to have a Customs officer searching everybody who comes into the country has never been realistic. What you do is you identify through all sorts of intelligence …

They are not my words; they are the words of John Winston Howard. He was right then and the opposition is wrong now. (Time expired)

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