Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

The point I am making—and I appreciate that the House has given me some latitude to do so—is that Customs has suffered significantly because of the failures of this government to protect our borders and their failure to control the budget. The reason I am making these points is that it has affected the ability of Customs to do the job that the Australian people expect of it, and that is to protect us from contraband, such as weapons and drugs, flying into our country. The fact that they have been so diverted by the crisis that has been created—a self-induced crisis caused by this government—on our borders is hindering their ability to do that. That is the reason I was highlighting the fact that we have had over 32,000 people arrive here illegally under Labor's watch. This happened as a direct result of the policy changes that they have pursued since coming to office, changes which unwound the successful border protection regime they inherited from the Howard government.

As I have said, this is detracting from the ability of Customs to do the job we expect of them. Also detracting from the ability of Customs to do the job is the fact that they have borne the brunt of Labor's budget cuts. Those cuts have been made not because of the difficult fiscal circumstances the government has found itself in—because we have never had so much revenue—but because the government needs to make up for the fact that so much money has been wasted by the Labor Party since it came to office.

It is law and order agencies such as Customs, the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Crime Commission that have been forced to cut their staff and cut their budgets because of that wasted money. In the case of Customs, 750 staff have been cut from the agency since the Labor Party came to office, and that has significantly weakened it. It has allowed organised criminal syndicates to penetrate it. We have seen examples of that at Sydney Airport recently.

Two very broad areas that have suffered because of these Customs cuts are the ability of Customs to inspect cargo when it comes into Australia and the ability of Customs to screen passengers when they arrive in our country. These are two areas of Customs that have been hit very significantly by the Labor Party's budget cuts—cuts, I remind you, that never would have needed to happen except that the Labor Party cannot manage Australia's finances and have wasted literally billions of dollars since they came to office. The capacity of Customs has been reduced because of that inability of Labor.

Labor, when they came to office, astonishingly cut the budget that Customs has for cargo inspections by $58.1 million. That occurred in the 2008-09 budget. The ability of Customs to screen cargo has not recovered since. Under the Howard government, 60 per cent of air cargo was inspected when it came into Australia. Under this government, less than 10 per cent of air cargo is inspected when it arrives in our country. Less than five per cent of sea cargo is inspected.

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