David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Justice. Will the minister update the House on what action the government is taking to crack down on organise crime and the illegal drugs and firearms trade? What is obstructing our ability to keep Australia safe?

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

I thank the member for Banks for that important question. The Australian Crime Commission, our national criminal intelligence agency, tells us that the criminal economy in Australia is worth around $15 billion. That is made up of the illicit drugs trade, money laundering and the trafficking of firearm's. The ACC conservatively estimates that there are about 250,000 long arms and 10,000 handguns in the illicit gun market. Police consistently tell us that there is an inextricable link between guns, drugs and organised crime.

Firearms trafficking is a deadly crime and even a small number of firearms coming into Australia is a huge threat to the safety and security of our communities. And that is why we had an election commitment that we would introduce minimum mandatory sentences of five years prison for offenders charged with the smuggling of firearms or the smuggling of firearms parts. On Monday the Labor Party opposed this policy in the Senate and they did so, according to the shadow minister for justice, because:

… the Australian Labor Party's national platform that it is the strongly-held view of my party that mandatory minimum sentencing is often discriminatory in practice … and so we oppose mandatory sentencing…

We oppose mandatory sentencing. That is interesting because I have come across this document:—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No props.

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

A Secure and Fairer Australia brought to us by Julia Gillard and Labor—remember her?

Mr Brendan O'Connor interjecting—

Very timely, member for Gorton. The ministers responsible for this document at the time were the then Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, and the then minister for home affairs, Brendan O'Connor. This document goes on to say:

In May 2010 federal Labor introduced tough new people smuggling offences.

This is May 2010 in the midst of the worst people smuggling crisis this country had ever seen. We had 50,000 people arriving here illegally on 800 illegal boats. This document goes on to say:

They include penalties of up to 20 years imprisonment and mandatory minimum terms of up to eight years.

So apparently in the Labor Party's national platform and as part of their DNA, they do not believe in mandatory sentencing yet they are bragging about it in policy documents put before the Australian people in 2010. This would have been put out just before they stabbed Kevin Rudd and put in Julia Gillard and later on of course when they stabbed Julia Gillard to put in Kevin Rudd. They do not know what they believe in, as we have seen. They do not know if they believe in helping us to stop organised crime, in helping us to stop drugs or in helping us to stop guns and they should not have opposed this sensible legislation. (Time expired)