Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is an important question to the Minister for Justice. Will the minister inform the House of the latest steps the government has taken to combat organised crime and the scourge of drugs like ice?

Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Braddon for that question. I know that he is working very closely with members in his community to tackle the scourge of ice. Sadly, he is not the only member whose communities are affected by what is rightly described as a pandemic across the country. Crystal methamphetamine, often referred to as ice, is a drug that is highly addictive and poses extremely serious health risks for those who use it. In its most recent illicit drug report, the Australian Crime Commission found that the number of seizures of amphetamine type substances in Australia was the highest on record. This drug has devastating effects in our community. It is linked to family violence, increases in crime and it keeps our emergency services busy doing things when there is plenty of pressure on them to do the sorts of things that they should be doing as well. Unfortunately, this pandemic is real. Demand is very, very high. It is a very easy drug to manufacture and it can be done with rudimentary tools, often in dangerous, clandestine laboratories that could be just within suburban areas.

We know that outlaw motorcycle gangs are involved in the manufacture and sale of ice across the country and the government remains deeply concerned about this trend. As the Prime Minister said earlier this year, the war on drugs is ongoing, but it is one which we will always fight and it is one in which we will never surrender. At the Commonwealth level, we are taking strong action against organised motorcycle gangs who peddle these drugs in our communities.

Since coming to government, we have fast-tracked the establishment of the National Anti-Gang Squad and we have established strike teams in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia, and liaison officers in all other jurisdictions, including in the member for Braddon's home state of Tasmania. This model involves state and federal law enforcement co-locating and harnessing all of the resources at the disposal of both levels of government. This unprecedented cooperation between state and federal law enforcement is working.

On Monday, the Australian Federal Police in conjunction with Queensland Police and Customs and Border Protection dismantled an organised crime syndicate importing 10 litres of precursors into Australia. These precursors would have produced ice with an estimated street value of $2½ million. As the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection has also referred to, cooperative work between our law enforcement agencies resulted in the seizure of 90 kilograms of methamphetamine in Perth, which is the largest seizure ever in Western Australia.

Last financial year, law enforcement seized more than four tonnes of amphetamine type drugs and so far this financial year we have seized more than 1.7 tonnes. But the threat that we face from the criminal organisations that would peddle these drugs in our communities remains very serious, but we will continue to work with our state and territory partners to do everything we can to disrupt the supply of this drug and to arrest and imprison those who peddle it.