Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise to speak on the Australian Border Force Bill 2015 and the Customs and Other Legislation Amendment (Australian Border Force) Bill 2015. I also have great pleasure in following the member for Bass. To have someone of his vast hands-on experience in the military and in areas of border protection and the protection of the sovereignty of this nation does this parliament great credit.

The very first order of business for any sovereign government must be the defence of the nation and the integrity of its borders. That has always been true throughout history. If we look at the events in the world today, where there are so many people who seek to do us harm—with the problem that we have of the ice epidemic and the problem of people smugglers—probably at no time in our nation's history have the integrity and security of our nation's borders been more important. That is why I am proud to stand here and speak on this bill.

Sadly, the other side of politics in this country today simply does not take border protection seriously. We see it here today with the speakers' list. Ten of my colleagues are speaking on this bill, with not a single speaker from the other side prepared to stand up and defend their position. We saw, during the government of John Howard, that the previous Prime Minister stood up and made the simple, self-evident statement: 'We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come.' That is a simple, self-evident statement, but it was howled down with sneers of ridicule and sniggering from the left. Then we saw the previous government, with their disdain for our border protection, undo the policies we had on boat arrivals. We saw the tragedy: 50,000 people came unlawfully to the country on 800 boats, with over 1,200 deaths at sea. There was an $11 billion blow-out in costs and thousands of children in detention. That is one area where this government has worked to address and fix the problems.

When it comes to our border protection, it is important before we start to look at the mess that was created by the Labor Party and that we have inherited and what we are doing to clean it up. I will start with some of the cuts that Labor made. It is important to note that these cuts were made at a time when the previous Labor government were throwing money around this country like confetti. They were not making cuts because they had a huge interest bill to pay on the debt that was created by the previous government; these were cuts they made at times when they had money for set-top boxes, they had $900 cheques to send out to dead people and they had billions for pink batts—this was the time they made these cuts.

I will start with the Australian Federal Police. In 2011-12, Labor made a cut of $131½ million and 72 people lost their jobs. In 2012-13, not satisfied with that previous cut, they then cut another $133 million and another 25 staff. To the Australian Crime Commission: in 2008-09 they started off with a cut of 50 staff. Not satisfied, the following year, 2009-10, they cut the budget by $2.28 million and cut 35 staff. They kept going in 2011-12, with a $7.3 million cut, and another 23 staff lost their jobs. In 2012-13, another cut was made, of $12.6 million, and another 36 staff lost their jobs.

We come to the cuts to the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. In 2009, a cut of 220 staff was made. In 2010-11, the Labor government cut another 250 staff from our Customs and Border Protection Service. In 2011-12, there was yet another cut, of $38.2 million, and another 90 staff lost their jobs. Not finished, in 2012-13 they cut $25.9 million and another 190 staff were cut, at a time when Labor were throwing money around like confetti. For every other thing they could think of they had money to throw at it but, when it came to the important issue of the sovereignty of our borders, they were making cuts. It was an absolute disgrace. When they made these cuts it had operational effects. The operational effects occurred in the screening of goods coming into this country.

When the Howard government left office, 60 per cent of air cargo consignments coming into the nation were screened—more than one in two. So, if you are thinking of importing something illegally, some illegal contraband or firearm, if you know that more than one in two consignments are going to be screened—more than 50 per cent—you know that, more than likely, your contraband will get caught. That fact alone becomes an important deterrent.

In 2009-10 Labor cut the budget for cargo screening by $58 million, and we saw a 75 per cent reduction in screening of air cargo. Under Labor we were down to 10 per cent of consignments being screened. So you only had a one in 10 chance of being caught. What a great incentive for someone to have a go at trying to import something illegal into the country if you know that there is only a one in 10 chance of being caught—when, before, 60 per cent of those air cargo shipments were being inspected. And, as sure as night follows day, as could be expected when you make those cuts, when you open up the holes in the net, you get people going through and importing illegal contraband.

One of the most notable cases was that of the 220 Glock pistols that were imported through a post office in Sylvania Waters, just outside my borders in the neighbouring electorate of Cook. Two hundred and twenty Glock firearms were imported into the country. At the time, the New South Wales Chief of Police, Mr Scipione said:

… these guns were being imported specifically for use by criminals, including outlaw motorcycle gang members and those Middle Eastern organised crime groups.

That was back in 2012. Thankfully, through the good work of our law enforcements agents, some of those guns are now out of circulation—out of society. I will quickly go through where a few of them were found.

In Wiley Park, back in January 2012, police recovered one of these Glock pistols imported into Sylvania Waters when they arrested a man named Khaled after he shot at his neighbour. In May 2012, at Revesby—a stone's throw from the borders of my electorate—an empty Glock magazine was found by a person walking their dog in a park. In May 2012, in the backyard of a residence in Glenfield Park another gun was found. In October 2012, this time at Merrylands, police found one of the imported Glocks hidden inside a secret compartment of a limousine.

Further, in October 2012, this time at St Mary's, a resident, an alleged member of the Lone Wolf bikie gang, was found with one of these illegally imported pistols and also drug manufacturing equipment. In December 2012, one of these guns had been fired at Greenacre and, following a raid, the police found another one of these guns at Rhodes. In February 2013, this time at World Square, another one of these guns was uncovered during a raid that also uncovered cocaine and cash. In March 2013, this time at Marrickville, another gun was found. In September 2013, this time at Westmead, one was found in the footwall of a stolen Mercedes in a garage. In December 2013, another one of these stolen imported Glocks was found at Matcham on the Central Coast. Another was found in Condell Park in the drawers of a bedroom. They have also been found in Surry Hills, Punchbowl and Edensor Park.

The police have located 14 of these weapons that were imported unlawfully through Sylvania Waters at the time the previous Labor government opened the holes in our nets. There are still 106 of these firearms somewhere in our society today. Somewhere—most likely in Western Sydney, in parts of my electorate—106 of these illegally imported firearms are still in circulation. That is what happens when you do not take border protection of our nation seriously. These are the consequences.

That is what this bill is about. It establishes the statutory office of the Australian Border Force Commissioner who will command the Australian Border Force with a new, front-line operational border control and enforcement entity within the Department of Immigration and Border Protection that will enforce customs and immigration laws to protect Australia's border. On this side of the chamber we take border protection and our national sovereignty seriously as part of the important obligation we have to look after Australia. This bill is part of it, and I commend it to the House.

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