George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service is responsible for managing the security and integrity of Australia's borders. It has responsibility for protecting Australians through the interception of illicit drugs, weapons, unauthorised boats and postal items, and also targets high-risk travellers. Unfortunately the service is being stretched due to the government's mismanagement of our borders.

Since this government changed the immigration laws relating to asylum seekers there has been an influx of unauthorised boat arrivals, putting strain on Customs and leaving Australia a soft target for organised criminal syndicates. In the last few weeks, we have witnessed a government that has completely lost control of our borders. We have witnessed a large outbreak of asylum seekers from the Christmas Island detention centre, a violent confrontation at the Villawood detention centre and a violent confrontation at the Christmas Island detention centre, with detainees setting fire to main buildings and throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails while rioting, setting fire to furniture and buildings. The problems certainly were not limited to Christmas Island, with protests, break-outs and disturbances occurring throughout the mainland detention network. Under Labor, break-outs, riots and complete chaos reign. The government has allowed people smugglers to dictate Australia's immigration policy.

Since August 2008, we have seen the arrival of 230 boats and 11,533 unauthorised people. When the Howard government left office there were four people in immigration detention in Australia. Last night there were more than 6,000. Since Julia Gillard knifed the former Prime Minister a year ago tomorrow—

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

Order! It is 'Ms Julia Gillard'. Could we use correct titles.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Since the current Prime Minister knifed, stabbed in the back, politically assassinated, butchered the former Prime Minister, Mr Rudd, who is now the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and took control of a Labor Party which, in her own words, had lost their way, we have seen 89 boats and 4,981 unauthorised arrivals on her watch. Without a strong border protection policy, these numbers will continue to increase as more people risk their lives and the lives of their families trying to enter Australia illegally.

As I have stated many times in this place, the coalition believes in an uncompromising approach to protecting Australia's borders. The integrity of our borders cannot be maintained without a properly resourced Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. Since coming to office three years ago, Labor has cut funding to Customs for cargo screening, making Australia's borders less secure and our nation more vulnerable. In the 2009-10 budget, Labor cut the budget to Customs for cargo screening by $58.1 million. This cut to screening by the Rudd-Gillard government reduced the number of potential sea cargo inspections by 25 per cent. Labor's cuts also resulted in a reduction of 75 per cent of air cargo inspections. It is no wonder illicit drugs are slipping through our borders when only 13.3 per cent of air cargo consignments are X-rayed and only 0.6 per cent of air cargo is physically examined. That means that 86.7 per cent of all air cargo consignments are not examined at all. What has become quite clear is that Labor's cuts to the Customs cargo and vessel inspection systems put Australians at risk by giving a boost to organised criminal gangs that smuggle illicit drugs and weapons into the country.

I turn to the specific measures proposed in the Customs Amendment (Serious Drugs Detection) Bill 2011. Under the Customs Act as it currently stands, an internal search, including an internal scan, can only be carried out by a medical practitioner at a place specified in the regulations. The Customs Regulations 1926 specify a hospital or a surgery or other practising rooms of a medical practitioner for this purpose. Once detained, an application can be made to a judge for an order for an internal search of the detainee by a medical practitioner. Internal searches can be carried out by various means, including by conducting a scan of a person's internal cavities. A detainee can also consent in writing to be subject to an internal search. The amendments in this bill allow, in addition to the existing internal searches by medical practitioners, internal non-medical scans to be done in limited circumstances by a Customs officer using prescribed equipment. The former search will be renamed 'medical internal search' and the latter will be called 'non-medical internal scan'.

According to Customs records, last financial year 205 people were taken to hospital for examination under suspicion of having drugs concealed internally. Upon medical examination, less than a quarter were found to be carrying drugs. In the light of these statistics, it makes sense to the coalition to support the changes proposed in this bill in order to streamline the process for Customs and enable funds to be saved where possible. We believe the changes are reasonable. The bill provides that a suspected person may refuse a non-medical internal scan and opt for the medical internal search at a hospital, as per current practice. The bill also provides for the application of technological efficiencies to border protection. Although, as I said in my remarks, the government's record on border protection is shameful and lamentably weak, nevertheless this is a pragmatic and largely uncontroversial improvement to the regime. For that reason, we will offer it our support.

Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Customs Amendment (Serious Drugs Detection) Bill 2011 will enable officers of Customs, using prescribed equipment, to undertake an internal non-medical scan of a person who is suspected to be internally concealing a suspicious substance. Currently, under the Customs Act, an internal search, including an internal scan, can only be carried out by a medical practitioner at a place specified in the regulations. The Customs Regulations 1926 specify a hospital or the surgery or other practising rooms of a medical practitioner for this purpose. The amendments will allow, with the consent of a detainee, an initial non-medical internal scan of a person to be carried out by an officer of Customs using body scan technology that is to be prescribed in the regulations. This technology produces a computer image of a person's internal cavities within a skeletal structure as opposed to images of external body parts. Such images may serve to allay an officer's suspicion that a passenger is internally concealing a suspicious substance, in which case the detainee would be released immediately. Where, however, a body scan image supports s suspicion of an internal concealment, the existing regime concerning internal searches by a medical practitioner will apply.

The existing safeguards applicable to the equipment used in the conduct of an external search of a detainee will be extended to the body scan equipment to be used to carry out a non-medical internal scan. For example, before a body scanner could be deployed, the chief executive officer of Customs would have to provide a statement to the minister that the equipment can be safely used to detect prohibited goods and that it poses no risk, or minimal risk, to the health of the person being scanned. In addition, before officers of Customs can use a body scanner, they would have to complete approved training in its use.

The extension of the internal search regime to include a non-medical internal scan by an officer of Customs will reduce the number of people who are referred to a hospital for internal examination by a medical practitioner. It will reduce the significant resource costs and medical costs incurred in the current process; it will reduce the impact on hospital emergency units; it will enhance early and accurate identification and referral for medical examination of people suspected of internally carrying drugs; and finally, through early identification of internal concealment, it will minimise potential threats to life and reduce the number of persons requiring transportation to hospital by ambulance on the basis of deteriorating health during detention.

These amendments will enable the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service to exercise its border responsibilities more efficiently and effectively.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.