Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to make a few comments on the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2007. Before I do, I want to take the opportunity to congratulate the new Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Johnston. I do not think there is a more able and appropriate person to take on that role following Senator Ellison’s elevation into cabinet. I know Senator Johnston, with his background in law and as a very distinguished Western Australian, will carry out these very important duties as the justice and customs minister with great skill and style.

Justice and Customs is a portfolio where there is a considerable amount of activity in keeping Australia safe and keeping our citizens safe and secure both in Australia and overseas. Customs do a fabulous job. It is a very busy part of the portfolio for the minister. I know the minister, as a Western Australian, will relish the work of the Customs marine branch, with which I had quite a lot to do during my time as fisheries minister. The Customs marine branch do a fabulous job, and I know that Senator Johnston will take a very keen interest in the great work that they do, as well as the work that Customs generally do. They perform a fabulous job right around Australia and overseas. If you have been overseas and seen how Customs operates in any other country and then you have come back to Australia and seen what a tremendous job the Australian Customs people do for ordinary tourists coming in, you feel very proud to be Australian and to be part of a government that has built this culture within the Customs Service. While I am at it, I want to pay very high regard to the work of the former minister, Senator Ellison, with whom I have had a great many dealings in the past. Senator Ellison continued to perform his duties as the justice and customs minister in a particularly able way.

I just want to make a few comments. I did not come here to take issue with Senator Nettle on the Greens’ views of these issues, although—without wanting to get into the precise and particular debate—the Greens have strange views on many of the issues that most other Australians consider essential for our safety, welfare and security. I can refer to some of the things that Senator Nettle mentioned by reference to an issue I want to briefly raise in the Senate.

Earlier this year I was privileged to be part of a delegation of the Australian parliament to the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum, which was held in Moscow. That forum consists of parliamentarians from the Asia-Pacific region. Should anyone be wondering why an Asia-Pacific forum would be held in Moscow, east Russia is on the Pacific, and it was suggested that Vladivostok would not have the facilities for the conference—hence we held it in freezing cold Moscow in the depths of winter.

One of the topics for discussion there was international terrorism and international crime. It became very clear in talking to other parliamentarians from all of the countries in the Asia-Pacific region that one of the real problems confronting law enforcement and security agencies around the world was the transnational nature of crime and terrorism. Crime and terrorism only exist because they have the money to operate. Limiting the financing of terrorists and terrorism organisations and of organised crime gangs depends on trying to cut off the money supply to these organisations. The committee which I chair, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Crime Commission, has just completed an inquiry into amphetamines and other synthetic drugs. In the course of that inquiry as well it became known to those on the committee that drugs were a major source of financing for international crime and international terrorism.

Senator Nettle asks: why is ASIS involved? I thought the second reading speech made it very clear, and I am sure the minister will also address the issue in his summing up. One of the purposes of the legislation is to allow the Director-General of ASIS to communicate AUSTRAC information to foreign intelligence agencies and agencies right around the world that are concerned with the international trafficking of money, and the arms and drugs that money can buy. They need a bit of coordination.

One thing that came out of my committee’s inquiry was the ridiculous situation in Australia where we have seven different states and territories, each with different laws and boundaries, and all the law enforcement agencies of those states and territories, and indeed the Commonwealth, have to abide by the laws that apply within these artificial lines on a map, and yet the criminals have no such constraint. The criminals can slip across the borders and conduct criminal activities in any state or in more than one state. It is very difficult for the law enforcement agencies to get criminals in one state, because they might have done some things in other states. I was appalled to hear of the difficulties the law enforcement agencies had because of the different styles of legislation in each state, the different nuances of the criminal enforcement activities and the different way courts in each state interpret the law. We give a free kick to organised crime within Australia by not having laws that are uniformly applied.

I know a lot of work has been done. Congratulations to Senator Ellison for bringing the states’ police ministers together to try and do something about that; I know a lot of good work has been done. But it seems inconceivable to me that in this day and age the states would still jealously guard particular criminal laws that are different from those of other states not five kilometres across the border, so to speak. The sooner we can take a national approach—certainly we do to money laundering—to the laws that currently constrain our law enforcement agencies, the better Australia will be. More directly aligned to this bill, we need to have that same flexibility in sharing information with agencies around the world which are, as our agencies are, engaged in the fight against terrorism and organised crime.

I think this bill before the Senate tonight attempts to make it easier for the law enforcement agencies around Australia to deal with terrorism and organised crime. It is part of an ongoing approach by the Howard government to try and ensure the safety and security of all Australians by acting in a way favourable to the law enforcement agencies not only in Australia but overseas where that overseas activity impacts on the security and safety of Australians. I commend the bill to the Senate.