Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement, I present the committee's report entitled Examination of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission annual report 2019-20.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement has a statutory duty to monitor and review the performance of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, or the ACIC, by examining each of its annual reports. The committee is pleased to present its latest report on the ACIC annual report 2019-20.

The committee acknowledges the work undertaken by the ACIC through the year to make Australia safer and its continued high standards in intelligence-gathering and analysis to disrupt criminal threats. Through analysis of collected criminal intelligence from partner agencies, the ACIC improves the understanding of crimes that are impacting on Australia to influence a better response. In the 2019-20 reporting period, the ACIC has increased the amount of finalised intelligence products from the previous reporting period, keeping Australia safer.

The committee acknowledges that the ACIC, like all law enforcement agencies, experienced a performance impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. The committee notes, however, that the ACIC overcame much of this to perform well under the limiting circumstances. In particular, the committee thanks the ACIC for its research and findings on illicit drugs, particularly on how COVID-19 has impacted drug related crime in Australia.

The ACIC annual report highlights a number of ACIC activities and priorities in the 2019-20 reporting year. These highlights include the discovery of 208 previously unknown targets; the finalisation of 139 intelligence products containing examination material and 153 analytical intelligence products; the listing of six potential new Australian priority organisation targets, or APOTs, and the successful disruption of five APOTs to the point that they are no longer considered APOT-level threats; the disruption of 34 criminal entities; and, finally, the seizure of $3.1 billion in street value of drugs and precursors.

The committee, however, is disappointed that some of the jurisdictions have yet to progress the legislative changes required to implement the working with children checks national reference system, and the committee encourages the ACIC, the Minister for Home Affairs and the Department of Home Affairs to take this up directly with the relevant state ministers.

As always, the committee commends the ACIC on its National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program. The wastewater program provides critical insight into drug consumption across Australia and has directly assisted operational and policy responses to drug related crime. The committee is pleased that the wastewater program has received additional funding from the Australian government.

I commend the report.