Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is opposed to the Australian Crime Commission Amendment (Criminology Research) Bill 2015. In the words of one of the former ministers in this area whom I have discussed this bill with, it simply is not a good fit. The purpose of the bill is to amend the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002, or the ACC Act, and repeal the Criminology Research Act 1971, or the CR Act, in order to merge the Australian Institute of Criminology into the Australian Crime Commission.

The bill comprises two schedules. Schedule 1 makes amendments to the ACC Act. The purposes of the amendments in this schedule are to enable the merged agency to continue to carry out the Australian Institute of Criminology's research work; to share criminological research and information with any person, including the private sector; and to carry out commissioned research. Schedule 2 repeals the Criminology Research Act to abolish the AIC as a statutory agency. The Australian Institute of Criminology, or the AIC, was established in 1973 under the CR Act. As a Commonwealth statutory authority, the AIC is regulated under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013. Staff of the AIC are generally engaged under the Public Service Act 1999 but may also be employed or engaged by the AIC for a particular project.

According to the AIC 2013-14 annual report, the AIC:

… has served as Australia's national research and knowledge centre on crime and justice for more than 40 years, undertaking and promulgating new research, monitoring and analysing crime trends, and providing advice to inform legislative, policy and practice change.

The independent status of the AIC has meant its output is not only robust, but trusted by government, law enforcement and justice agencies across the nation and—

I should stress from the evidence the committee received—

internationally. Much of the AIC's work falls under the Commonwealth Government’s strategic research priorities, in particular, the priority themes of 'living in a changing environment', 'promoting population health and wellbeing' and 'securing Australia's place in a changing world'.

A Criminology Research Advisory Council, established under the CR Act in 2011, advises the Director of the AIC on strategic research priorities, communications and the Criminology Research Grants Program. The advisory council consists of nine members, who represent the Australian government and all states and territories. This composition ensures that the areas targeted for research funding reflect both national and state and territory priorities. The Criminology Research Grants Program, managed by the AIC, is funded by the Commonwealth and state and territory governments. The Director of the AIC approves a series of research grants each year, taking into account the recommendations of the Criminology Research Advisory Council. The program funds research that has relevance to jurisdictional policy in the areas of law, police, judiciary, corrections, mental health, social welfare, education and related fields.

The Australian Crime Commission commenced operation on 1 January 2003. It has its origins in the April 2002 Council of Australian Governments leaders summit, which agreed that a new national framework was needed to meet the challenges of multijurisdictional crime. It replaced and combined the strategic and operational intelligence and specialist investigative capabilities of the National Crime Authority, the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence and the Office of Strategic Crime Assessments.

According to its latest annual report, the aim of the ACC is:

Reduced serious and organised crime threats of most harm to Australians and the national interest.

To achieve this aim, the ACC has a range of special coercive powers such as the capacity to compel attendance at examinations, the production of documents and the answering of questions, similar to a royal commission. The ACC also has an intelligence-gathering capacity and a range of investigative powers common to law enforcement agencies, such as the power to tap phones, use surveillance devices and participate in controlled operations. Like the AIC, the ACC is regulated under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act, and staff of the ACC are engaged under the Public Service Act.

With that background, the 2014 Commission of Audit, announced by the Abbott government and released in February 2014, made a number of recommendations, including that:

A consolidated crime intelligence capability would also better support law enforcement operations …

The Commission of Audit did not suggest the possibility of the AIC merging with the ACC but proposed that consideration be given to moving the AIC to a university. This, perhaps, would have been a better framework to maintain the independence.

Prior to the 2015 budget, there was media speculation that the two bodies—the AIC and the ACC—would merge, and at the time Labor's shadow minister for justice, Mr Feeney, wrote to the minister requesting a briefing. However, the minister noted that the government was yet to make a decision regarding the proposed merger and so would not be offering a briefing at that time. Following the 2015 budget, the Minister for Justice announced the appointment of the ACC's CEO, Chris Dawson, as the newly appointed interim director of the AIC. At that time, Minister Keenan indicated that the government was considering whether the AIC should be placed within the ACC, but at that date no final decision had been made. The minister said:

In the interim, the ACC and AIC will continue to exist and operate as separate entities, while working together on expanding existing relationships.

Finally, on 25 September this year, the minister announced that the AIC would be placed within the ACC to boost research capability at the nation's criminal intelligence agency. The AIC is to be incorporated into the ACC as an independent research branch known as the Crime and Justice Research Centre, the CJRC. The minister stressed that the merger is not about cutting costs or personnel of either agency; it is about creating a unified workforce incorporating staff of both agencies.

The minister has stated that this merger brings together Australia's national criminal intelligence and research capabilities under one banner, and that having a unified resource of this type will enrich our national understanding of criminal activity, including serious and organised crime and terrorism, allowing police, justice agencies and policy-makers at all levels of government to adopt a more effective, efficient, evidence based response to crime.

Under the proposed merger, the AIC will carry its research functions over to the ACC, including its ability to undertake commissioned research. The AIC's corporate functions will be merged with those of the ACC. The position of AIC director will be abolished.

The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee recently undertook an inquiry into this bill and the committee received correspondence from various stakeholders raising concerns about the proposed merger. As a result, Labor believes that the Australian Institute of Criminology's functions—which are to promote justice and to reduce crime by conducting criminological research, and communicating the results of that research to the Commonwealth, the States and the community—are best undertaken by an independent agency that can guarantee the independence of the work undertaken.

Further, the independence of the AIC has ensured that the programs for awarding grants and engaging specialists has been, and has been seen to be, independent and robust. As discussed in Labor's additional comments to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee report, we believe that any positives that have been secured through the merger of the AIC and the Australian Crime Commission—such as access to classified data—can be secured through legislation and/or interagency agreements, and does not require a full merger.

The continued integrity and independence of criminological research in Australia is vital for both the quality of research but also the public trust in crime statistics. It is not in the public or the national interest for such statistics to ever be perceived to be anything less than completely accurate and compiled by independent and skilled professionals.

Labor senators continue to have concerns about these aspects of the bill. The appointment of the ACC CEO Chris Dawson as the interim director of the AIC in July 2015 raised concerns about there being an impending takeover of the AIC. Mr Dawson, appearing before the committee twice—first in his capacity as interim director of the AIC and then as director of the ACC—raised some concerns about the impact of the government's merger on the independence of his office.

We recommend that the Government further consider the concerns raised by stakeholders during the public hearing, and in the submissions received by the committee regarding maintaining the integrity and independence of the research currently undertaken by the AIC, including maintaining funding and access to datasets, and maintaining public access to data, research and library resources of the JV Barry Library operated by the AIC. If it were to proceed with a merger, amendments to the minister's second speech and explanatory memorandum to the bill would help to address these concerns by committing to writing the verbal assurance given by the government regarding these matters.

Further, Labor believes that the government should consider establishing a statutory advisory body similar to the existing AIC council to advise the ACC board on setting the criminological research agenda and priorities and allocation of grants. It is clear that this bill is not about improving government service delivery. It is about defunding services and that will result in reduced capabilities. As recently as last week, Prime Minister Turnbull's appointment as Secretary to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Martin Parkinson, warned against degrading the abilities and organisational memory of our Public Service through outsourcing and redundancies. The government would do well to heed this advice.

We do not think the merger of these two agencies—or a takeover, as has been suggested by some—is a good fit. Therefore, Labor will oppose the Australian Crime Commission Amendment (Criminology Research) Bill 2015 in its current form.