Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Through you, Mr President, the senator has made a number of assertions. I remind him that, since coming to office, the government has increased funding to our law enforcement and border protection agencies to better target and respond to threats and funded new capacity-building initiatives throughout the region to develop the border protection and immigration systems of our neighbours. As I said, the Prime Minister made the point in his national security statement that this government inherited a wide range of government agencies that lacked unified control, direction and a single point of accountability. The Prime Minister has made clear that the government has therefore decided to move quickly to better enable our Customs Service to meet the resurgent threat to border integrity, and it is in this context that the initiative to retask and augment the Australian Customs Service in the context of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service is being put forward. (Time expired)