Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of additional information received by the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee.

I wish to speak to the additional estimates 2008-09 information received by the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs and to highlight the questions that were asked at estimates with regard to budget cuts. Specifically, the committee queried the Attorney-General’s Department and a number of agencies about the impact of the increased efficiency dividend on staffing in particular. We asked questions about the impact on staffing in the law enforcement and security agencies, specifically the Australian Crime Commission, the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. And what did we discover? We found that the Australian Crime Commission had lost 35 staff positions and 15 funded seconded places from a total of 573 positions in the last six months. The Customs service had lost 151 staff, and the Australian Federal Police—and this is on the public record, as set out in the document today—had lost around 170 members, including a number from the Air Security Officer Program.

We see in today’s Australian on page 3, under the headline ‘Debus in backflip over AFP staff cuts’:

THE Australian Federal Police is unable to fulfil its national security commitments after losing more than 200 staff in redundancies, undermining assertions to parliament this week by Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus.

It refers to a leaked email from the Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Mr Keelty, where he:

… warned that the voluntary redundancies—

were—

introduced to “align our staffing level with our budget” …

He goes on to say that:

… it is going to be a “tough couple of years for everybody”.

“As the Government develops its policies to deal with the current economic crisis, it is critical that the AFP reviews our own practices,” he said.

You can see that, clearly, there is an impact on security, in particular on the AFP and its ability to perform its duties, as a result of the increased efficiency dividend.

What is staggering is that the relevant minister, the Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Debus, rejected the allegation made by the shadow minister, Jason Wood, with respect to the figures. Mr Wood asked in parliament why the AFP had lost 200 staff since November and why the Australian Crime Commission had also been forced to slash staff numbers. The minister’s response was to say that Mr Wood had his facts wrong. Well, who has his facts wrong? It is the federal minister who has his facts wrong, because this was on the public record. We were sussing them out during budget estimates. The document tabled today says that around 170 members have been lost, including numbers from the Air Security Officer Program. And then today it has been made very clear in this report and on the public record that there have been significant cuts. The police association even back up the concerns and they say, as reported in the Australian:

… the AFP budget has already been slashed by $24 million and that, with the imposition of the Government’s efficiency dividend across the public sector, the total cutback would be about $74 million.

So you can see it is very serious indeed. We have read reports recently, including by Paul Maley in the Australian, regarding the Sydney office of the agency, and we have read reports about cutbacks at the Australian Crime Commission and the Australian Customs service.

We are concerned with the security and the impact on staffing and concerned with respect to its impact on law enforcement and security. We would like the government to come clean and disclose exactly what they have in mind for our agencies, specifically the Australian Federal Police, Customs and the Australian Crime Commission. We want to know what plans they have in store to ensure that our law enforcement and security agencies are getting adequate funding to meet the demands that they face. This matter was properly raised during budget estimates and is set out in a report today.

Question agreed to.