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

My question is to the Minister for Justice and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Counter-Terrorism. Will the minister update the House on what the government is doing to tackle the scourge of ice in our communities and protect families from the organised criminals who peddle this dangerous and illicit drug?

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

Thank you, Mr Speaker, and can I add my congratulations on your elevation. I thank the member for Macarthur for that important question. He knows why the government is particularly concerned about the scourge of ice. We believe that it poses the biggest risk to our community of all the illicit drugs because of the violent and menacing way that people behave under its influence.

The key to stopping this drug is to break the criminal syndicates that profit from it. We are doing this through unprecedented cooperation between state and federal law enforcement agencies. Since coming to office, we have sent Australian Federal Police officers, Australian Crime Commission officers and officers from the Australian Taxation Office to sit side-by-side with their state and territory colleagues in the National Anti-Gangs Squad. Within the Australian Crime Commission we have created a one-stop shop for state and territory law enforcement agencies for intelligence on criminal organisations. We have also implemented stricter monitoring on the sale of chemicals that can be diverted to make ice. We are following the money trail by cooperating with the states and territories to create a national unexplained wealth scheme. This will undermine the business model of the criminal organisations that peddle ice. We are also clearing away the barriers to information sharing between agencies of the Commonwealth and across jurisdictions. If there is information on criminal gangs held somewhere within the Commonwealth there should be no barrier to our police accessing that information.

This cooperation is disrupting more ice coming into Australia. Just today there has been another $80 million drug bust, with cooperation between the Australian Federal Police and their New Zealand and Fijian counterparts. Last week I joined with representatives from the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Border Force and Western Australia Police to announce that they had seized a further 20 kilograms of methamphetamines with a street value of $20 million. We have also passed through this parliament legislation that bans the import of psychoactive substances unless they have a legitimate use, and we have ensured that our agencies have access to reliable telecommunications data for consistent intelligence to help police put drug dealers away. On top of this, we have established a nationalised task force that will ensure that all states and territories are cooperating with the Commonwealth to develop a national strategy to tackle ice.

Today, the House is considering new legislation that will make it easier to prosecute the crooks involved in importing the precursor chemicals that can be diverted to make ice. These laws will directly target middlemen who profit in the drug trade and capitalise on legal loopholes to escape responsibility for their criminal acts. They will no longer be able to claim they are ignorant to the illicit content of those shipments to avoid prosecution. This government is committed to working, through the might of our law enforcement agencies, to ensure the safety and security of Australians from those who would abuse them by peddling ice.