Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Materiel) Share this | Hansard source

The Customs and AusCheck Legislation Amendment (Organised Crime and Other Measures) Bill 2013 provides for two very different measures. The first measure seeks to implement recommendations made by Taskforce Polaris and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement in their report on the adequacy of aviation and maritime security measures to combat serious and organised crime. The second measure removes the prohibition on the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Deputy President of the Senate being members of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity.

Before I address these measures in detail, I remind the Senate of the seriousness of the issue of organised criminal activity on Australian wharves and in our ports. Unfortunately, the Commonwealth's law enforcement agencies have been subject to systematic erosion in almost every budget since this government came to office. If the Attorney-General, the Minister for Home Affairs and the Labor Party were serious about stopping organised crime, that would be reflected in the allocation of resources and support for the essential elements of the mission of those agencies. It is an unfortunate fact that the budget cuts the government has inflicted on our law and border enforcement agencies have improved criminals' chances of putting guns and drugs into Australian communities. The government has reduced funding and personnel for law enforcement agencies such as the ACC and the AFP. It has also savaged Customs, the agency tasked with stopping illicit goods from coming across our borders.

Tuesday's budget confirmed what we already knew—that the government is simply not pulling its weight in this area. Further, it is being urged in that direction by the union movement. A group of five unions made a joint submission to the 2011 inquiry by the then Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Crime Commission into aviation and maritime security measures. The five unions were the Maritime Union of Australia; the Australian Workers' Union; the Rail, Tram and Bus Union; the Australian Maritime Officers Union; and the International Transport Workers Union. The submission said:

Unions are unaware that the incidence of criminal activity is more prevalent on the Australian waterfront than in other domestic workplaces. We have seen and read divisive and scurrilous reports, including newspaper headlines about organised crime being rampant on our waterfront but the articles lack substance while the social commentators' arguments are hardly compelling.

Both Australian Crime Commission maritime case studies included in their submission rely on allegations and suspicions. They suggest there is evidence of gangs of organised criminals operating and infiltrating the transport industries but the evidence is not included in the submission.

These unions have collectively donated $23.7 million to the Labor Party since they came to office. The MUA in particular has long denied there is a problem with criminality on the waterfront.

The government has accordingly been extremely reluctant to act on criminality on the waterfront. The coalition, conversely, has consistently brought this issue to the attention of the government since 2009. This government has finally resolved to act at five minutes to midnight—or, more precisely, four years after these reports were brought to their attention—on the very eve of an election.

Under the Howard government, funding was increased for the AFP and there was an increase in staff numbers from around 2,000 to more than 6,000. By contrast, the last three Labor budgets, including the one delivered on Tuesday, have axed an astonishing $309.7 million from AFP funding. In the 2012-13 budget, to help prop up its budgetary position, Labor froze the use of $58.3 million taken directly from criminals under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Before the 2007 election, Labor promised to increase AFP ranks by 500 operational AFP officers over five years from January 2008. This commitment has not been met. AFP numbers have not been boosted in real terms and there have been at least 249 AFP redundancies since Labor came to office. On Tuesday, the Treasurer informed the nation that its 2007 commitment would be deferred yet again.

We have heard anecdotal reports of various branches within the AFP being forced to find ways to make more cuts, even though there is no more meat on the bone. The coalition has heard that crime scene investigators are being asked to bring their own notepads and pens to take notes at crime scenes. This is a sorry state of affairs for an agency that was properly resourced under the Howard government. It is particularly galling in an environment where government spending has increased so dramatically over the last five years.

Organised crime is a problem all across the country. Even regional centres and remote communities are not immune from the activities of organised criminal syndicates. The task of combating it requires resources, expertise and cooperation, yet the Australian Crime Commission has been systematically undermined by the Labor government. Tuesday's budget revealed that, since this government came to office, it has cut $29.08 million from the ACC's budget and 198 staff, over 40 per cent of its personnel. Taking the fight to organised crime cannot be achieved when our most powerful crime-fighting agency is being systematically downsized and sidetracked from the main game.

The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service is an important partner of front-line law enforcement agencies. It has a vital role of stopping illegal goods such as drugs and guns, but Customs is not able to perform that role at peak efficiency. The service is plagued by instances of corruption and cuts to the Customs cargo-screening process to the tune of $58 million. It has become clear that organised criminal syndicates are taking advantage of these conditions. The government simply does not subscribe to the tenet of a strong law enforcement regime and strong border protection system.

This bill amends the Customs Act in a number of ways which I will not detain the Senate with. It also amends the AusCheck Act 2007 to allow a person's ASIC or MSIC, or their application for such a card, to be suspended if the person has been charged with a serious offence, and it enables the AusCheck scheme to make provisions for background checks to determine whether an individual has been charged with a serious offence or whether a charge of a serious offence has been resolved in relation to the individual. And I have mentioned that the Deputy Speaker and the Deputy President will legally become members of the parliamentary joint committee.

In conclusion, it is unfortunate that the process of implementing these measures has taken so long, particularly given the report that the joint committee on the Australian Crime Commission released in June 2011 and the recommendations that Taskforce Polaris handed down over a year ago. If the Attorney-General and the Minister for Home Affairs were serious about tackling organised criminal activity, they would have sought to protect their agencies from the damaging cuts this government has inflicted on them, particularly the cuts revealed by the Treasurer this week. Despite the failure of this government to protect the very agencies that this bill affects, the coalition does support measures to strengthen port and airport security, and for this reason I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.