Russell Matheson (Macarthur, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today in support of the Crimes Legislation Amendment Bill 2015, which delivers on the government's commitment to tackle crime and make our community safer. This amendment bill provides law enforcement agencies with the tools and powers that they need to do their job by ensuring Commonwealth laws are robust and effective in targeting criminals and reducing the heavy cost of crime on our local communities.

The bill contains a range of measures across various Commonwealth acts, including measures to implement tough penalties for gun related crime, to increase the operation and effectiveness of serious drug and precursor offences, to ensure our criminal offence regimes are robust and effective, to ensure efficient arrangements for administering criminal law and related provisions and to increase penalties for forced marriage offences. I would like to commend the member for Ryan for the way she spoke about forced marriages—she spoke in depth and gave some great examples. It is a totally unacceptable practice and it is a despicable act which should not be tolerated in our society. I commend the member for Ryan for her speech.

Today I would like to focus primarily on the measures in this bill that tackle gun related crime and increase the operation and effectiveness of serious drug and precursor offences. Before becoming a politician, I served as a sergeant in the New South Wales Police Force for more than 25 years. Due in part to my background in the police force, I now sit on two parliamentary law enforcement committees. The first, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity—or ACLEI as it is known—is responsible for preventing and investigating corruption issues in the Australian Crime Commission, the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service and the Australian Federal Police. The other committee I sit on, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement, monitors and reviews the performance of the Australian Crime Commission and the Australian Federal Police. In March this year, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement initiated an inquiry into crystal methamphetamine. This inquiry is currently looking into the criminal activities, practices and methods involved in the importation, manufacture, distribution and use of methamphetamine and its chemical precursors, including crystal methamphetamine or 'ice' and its impact on Australian society. In particular the committee is examining: the role of Commonwealth law enforcement agencies in responding to the importation, distribution and use of methamphetamine and its precursors; the adequacy of Commonwealth law enforcement resources for the detection, investigation and prosecution of criminal activities involving the importation, manufacture, distribution and use of methamphetamines and its precursors; the effectiveness of collaborative arrangements for Commonwealth law enforcement agencies with their regional and international counterparts to minimise the impact of methamphetamine on Australian society; the involvement of organised crime, including international organised crime and outlaw motorcycle gangs, in methamphetamine related criminal activities; the nature, prevalence and culture of methamphetamine use in Australia, including in Indigenous, regional and non-English-speaking communities; and strategies to reduce the high demand for methamphetamines in Australia.

A few weeks ago, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement commenced the first of a series of hearings that will take place right across the country into crystal meth. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement also plans to visit airports and ports in state capitals later on this year in relation to border security arrangements.

Methamphetamine belongs to the stimulant class of drugs that also includes amphetamines, ecstasy and cocaine which stimulates the brain and central nervous system. This class of drug can result in a range of psychological and physiological changes, such as increased alertness, euphoria and enhanced mood but also anxiety, panic, agitation, hallucinations, aggression and violence. There are three main forms of meth—powder, base and crystal or 'ice'. Ice is of particular concern to police and health professionals because it is the most potent form of methamphetamine. Frequent users of ice tend to be unemployed, psychologically distressed and engage in dangerous risk-taking activities.

In March, the Australian Crime Commission released a report that provides an unclassified intelligence picture of Australia's ice market. The report found that more than 60 per cent of Australia's highest risk organised crime targets are using ice as a source of profit to the detriment of the economic and social fabric of the Australian community. Chris Dawson, the CEO of the ACC, has stated that the use of ice continues to emerge as a national and international problem plaguing our communities and causing untold harm. How did we get to this point?

As one of the few developed nations in the world to avoid the full impact of the global financial crisis, Australia became, by default, a crime target for drug traffickers and transnational crime groups seeking a safe and stable economic environment in this region away from the financial turmoil affecting mainland Europe and the US in recent years. Australia's strong economic position and relatively affluent population with the ability to pay high prices for illicit drugs has meant that traffickers are able to sell their product at a higher wholesale price here than almost anywhere else in the world.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the average street price for a gram of ice is US$80. In Australia it is US$500—six times the average price. Added to this, these criminal organisations are earning Australian dollars, allowing them to benefit from historically high exchange rates when transferring their criminal proceeds back into foreign currency. Consequently, crime in Australia has become so lucrative that competing criminal organisations are using increasingly aggressive tactics in order to capture the market, such as bribing, corrupting or coercing public officials who hold positions that enable them to facilitate criminal activities. The problem has become so significant that the ACC conservatively estimates that organised crime costs Australia $15 billion a year and is now 'part of the everyday lives of Australians in ways that are unprecedented'.

This new troubling era that Australia finds itself in has meant that law enforcement committees like the ones I sit on are becoming increasingly important in ensuring that our law enforcement agencies are safeguarded from the corruptive forces of the drug trade.

This bill tackles these corruptive forces head-on by making a range of amendments to the Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner Act 2006 to improve the general operation of the act and empower the Integrity Commissioner to perform functions efficiently and effectively while also providing sufficient safeguards around the exercise of those functions. This will ensure that the Integrity Commissioner's powers under the act are clear and consistent, affording the commissioner greater discretion about how to deal with law enforcement corruption issues. These amendments support the government's election commitment to stamp out corruption within Australia's law and border enforcement agencies.

Unfortunately, when in office, those opposite cut the budgets of the ACC, AFP and the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service right at the time when Australia was becoming a ripe target for the drug trade. In 2009 Labor cut funding for Customs cargo screening by more than $58 million. That lead to a 75 per cent reduction in air cargo inspections and a 25 per cent reduction in sea cargo inspections.

Two years later, in 2011, Labor reduced mail inspections by 30 per cent, which meant that an extra 20 million packages entered Australia uninspected. It is no coincidence that the amount of drugs seized by Customs fell by 28 per cent and firearm detections dropped by 33 per cent. As the Hon. Michael Keenan said at the time:

When we talk of Labor's border protection crisis, it is more than their inability to control who comes to Australia. They cannot control what comes into Australia, and funding and personnel cuts to our front-line customs agencies are feeding directly into the ability of criminals to breach our borders.

Mr Keenan makes the point that, when dealing with street crime, you are almost always dealing with drug crime. So when you have a border protection agency that does not have the resources necessary to protect our borders then drugs will flow onto our streets and into our communities.

When the Howard government came into office in 1996 it increased funding to Customs in real terms by 238 per cent. Not only this but the day after the Port Arthur murders John Howard, who had been Prime Minister for only 57 days, introduced the most sweeping gun control reforms ever contemplated by any Australian government. According to author Simon Chapman, this agreement represents the single biggest advance in gun control in Australia's history—and possibly anywhere else in the world. I will never forget members of the public walking up to the counter at Surry Hills police station where I was working at the time and handing over their prohibited guns as part of the compensatory buyback scheme. In total, Australians surrendered more than 700,000 firearms—the world's largest weapons collection and destruction exercise to date.

Unfortunately, recent research has shown a steady increase in guns imported into the country over the past decade, with the number of privately owned guns now at the same level as it was in 1996. The fight against the flow of drugs and guns into this country began as soon as the Abbott Government came into office. As a matter of priority, the Abbott government reinvested $88 million into the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service to restore its ability to screen mail and air and sea cargo, it having been completely undermined by Labor.

Last year, the then Minister for Immigration and Border Protection the Hon. Scott Morrison announced the government's intention to merge the border control functions of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service into a single integrated border agency. Not only will this save the Australian taxpayer more than $480 million over four years; it will provide the optimal structure for the agency to protect our borders into the future.

The Abbott government have also provided Customs with: $98 million to establish a Strategic Border Command; $256 million for intelligence systems, including new capabilities to support the National Border Targeting Centre; $70 million to improve trade and travel, such as a new Trusted Trader framework; and $53 million for workforce measures and training, including the creation of the ABF College and enhanced integrity measures. We have also fast-tracked the $74 million National Anti-Gangs Squad, aimed at disrupting the operations of bikie gangs and other organised criminal outfits who are involved in and profit from the drug trade.

In the Abbott government's first year in office, law enforcement agencies recorded more than 93,000 illicit drug seizures, with a combined weight of 27 tonnes, and more than 110,000 arrests were made. These figures are the highest on record and are testament to the government's tough stance on crime as well as the vigilance and expertise of our law enforcement agencies. Seizures in 2013-14 include a record 10-tonne seizure of an ice precursor that, if not seized, could have been used to produce up to 4.5 tonnes of ice, which equates to an estimated 45 million individual street deals with an estimated value of $3.6 billion. More than 740 clandestine laboratories—or clan labs, as they are known informally—were detected during this reporting period, ranging in scale and capability from crude, makeshift operations to highly sophisticated labs using technically advanced equipment and complex chemical techniques. Regardless of their size or level of sophistication, the corrosive and hazardous chemicals used in clan labs are extremely volatile and pose significant risk to members of the public and the environment.

The new laws in this bill make two key changes to the Commonwealth drug and precursor offences so that it is easier to successfully prosecute individuals who are knowingly engaged in the importation and manufacture of ice. Firstly, this bill will make it easier to prosecute individuals who evade punishment because they manage their involvement in a drug operation in such a way that the prosecution cannot prove that they have the relevant level of knowledge of their own activities. Under this change when a person attempts to commit a serious drug or precursor offence the prosecution will only need to prove that the person knew that there was a risk and the substance involved was an illicit drug. This will make it simpler to prosecute individuals who are part of a larger drug enterprise but who deliberately ignore the obvious signs about how their actions fit into the broader scheme. Secondly, the laws in this bill will simplify the offences for importing chemicals used to manufacture illicit drugs. Under the amendments the prosecution will no longer have to prove that the importer intended to use these chemicals to produce illicit drugs or pass them on to a drug manufacturer for that purpose. It will be enough that the person imported a precursor without the appropriate authorisations.

This bill sends a strong message on the seriousness of gun related crime and violence by introducing mandatory minimum sentences of five years imprisonment for illegally importing firearms into Australia and illegally moving firearms or firearm parts across state borders. The coalition has been and always will be absolutely committed to stopping drugs and guns entering this country. As a former police officer I am honoured to be in this place to support this bill, which will dramatically improve the ability of our law enforcement agencies to fight this awful scourge on our community.

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