Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

The work of the Australian Border Force is second to none, in my judgement, compared to any other border agency in the world. They are doing world-class work. Along with the Australian Federal Police, they were successful recently in a seizure of 3.9 tonnes of drug precursor—enough to manufacture up to $3.6 billion worth of methamphetamine. They're doing that because this government is putting more by way of resources into the ABF and into the Australian Federal Police.

Let me remind the House that, in actual fact, it was the Labor Party, in the great glory years of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, that ripped 700 staff and $735 million from the Customs agencies. What did it result in? Labor ripping that money out of the agencies didn't result in more raids or more interventions at the border. It meant that we saw a reduction in sea cargo screening and a 75 per cent reduction in air cargo screening. We've reversed that. In fact, in 2016-17, ABF officers made over 24,000 detections of major drugs, precursors and the like. By weight, approximately seven tonnes of major drugs and precursors were detected. By comparison, in 2012-13, under Labor, there were 13,000 detections compared to our 24,000 last year. Five tonnes were seized during that year of 2012-13.

When you hear the Labor Party protesting, they are protesting on behalf of union leader crooks around the country, because the reality is that Labor union leaders believe that they are above the law. It's demonstrated in courts around the country every single day. The reality is that the Australian Federal Police eventually catch up with crooks.

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