Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement, I present the following reports: Examination of the Australian Crime Commission annual report 2014-15 and Examination of the Australian Federal Police annual report 2014-15.

Reports made parliamentary papers in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—Firstly, I will start with the Australian Crime Commission's report. We note that in 2014-15, the Australian Crime Commission has disrupted 54 serious and organised criminal groups and networks; it has seized more than $34 million in cash, $1.96 billion in estimated street value of illicit drugs and more than $175 million of precursor chemicals; it has restrained more than $238 million in assets; it has assisted in issuing 95.3 million tax assessments and the arrests of 194 people on 548 charges; and it has seized 18 firearms and referred 88 entities to the Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce, with an estimated value of over $80 million.

The committee commends the Australian Crime Commission for its vital contribution to Australia's fight against serious and organised crime, both domestically and internationally. The committee is supportive of the ACC expanding its capabilities and intelligence gathering to offshore locations, especially into regions that are known to be the source of illicit materials such as crystal methamphetamines.

In the report following examination of the annual report of the Australian Federal Police, we note that for 2014-15 the commissioner said that the year was characterised by challenge and change, and they diverted significant resources to meet the emerging terrorism threat. Despite that, the AFP was successful during 2014-15, with the seizure of nine tonnes of illicit drugs; the restraint of $246 million in criminal assets; the conduct of eight terrorism related disruption activities resulting in 25 people being charged; the arrest of 672 persons for Commonwealth crimes with a 94 per cent conviction rate, the establishment of a Fraud and Anti-Corruption Centre together with nine other Commonwealth agencies; enhanced cyber safety for over 190,000 Australian children following the ThinkUKnow program; the deployment of 99 staff in 29 countries; and the training of 4,896 law and justice officials from 16 nations.

The committee also notes that it remains concerned about its inability to examine the AFP's counter-terrorism activities. As the committee has previously stated, these activities often overlap with its important law enforcement functions, and preventing the committee from overseeing this element of the AFP's work may lead to unintended gaps in parliamentary oversight and hamper the committee 's ability to effectively oversee the AFP.

The committee recommends that the government introduce legislation to re-establish the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement's oversight function with respect to the monitoring, reviewing or reporting of the performance of the Australian Federal Police and of its functions under part 5.3 of the Criminal Code.