David Feeney (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

I think it is fair to say that, in his time as a minister of the Crown, this minister has carved out a very formidable reputation for himself as an enabler of Labor legislation and Labor ideas.

Mr Keenan interjecting—

Notwithstanding his feigned hilarity, again and again he has come before this parliament with Labor legislation and, of course, in that vein bipartisanship is very easy indeed. We find it very easy on this to support legislation that was written by the previous Labor government. When the member for Bass makes his appeal for substantial legislation to be passed, let him rest assured that substantial legislation has been passed, that it was authored by the previous government and that it was very happily supported by both sides of parliament in this place.

But not content with simply bringing Labor legislation to this parliament and having it pass, this minister has also rushed to embrace other key Labor initiatives. I wish to talk to him about Operation Polaris. Operation Polaris was the first multiagency waterfront task force to combat organised crime on the waterfront in New South Wales. It was a joint task force which included the New South Wales Police Force, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, the Australian Crime Commission and the New South Wales Crime Commission. It was of course established in 2010 under the former Labor government. Operation Polaris was commissioned to carry out waterfront-related investigations and to respond to organised crime in the maritime port areas. This was of course a critical initiative. Due to the success of Operation Polaris and the success of that model—

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