Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Crime Commission, I present the committee’s report entitled Examination of the Australian Crime Commission annual report 2007-2008, together with evidence received by the committee.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

It is an honour to speak on this report. Firstly, it is an opportunity for me to thank Alistair Milroy, the former CEO of the Australian Crime Commission, for guiding the organisation through its transition period from the National Crime Commission to the Australian Crime Commission and building the organisation into an impressive, crime-intelligent and the premier strategic law enforcement agency in this country. This is an organisation that both sides of parliament can have pride in—certainly pride in the commitment that is shown by officers of the Australian Crime Commission.

I also take the opportunity to welcome John Lawler, the former distinguished Deputy Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, who now takes over the role of Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Crime Commission. John comes at a time when the challenge for law enforcement in this country is great and the need for professional and technically sophisticated law enforcement is essential. Law enforcement collaboration amongst all our jurisdictions is absolutely paramount. As I said, the challenges are there. I think that the way that this organisation is now shaped puts it in a position to actually meet those challenges with a view to protecting society and ensuring that assistance is given where necessary to our state and territory law enforcement agencies.

I also should not let the opportunity pass to comment on Mick Keelty, the retiring Commissioner of the AFP and Chair of the Australian Crime Commission. Mick has given sterling service to this country. He has certainly guided both the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Crime Commission through some difficult times but, in terms of his commitment to law enforcement, he has left a very solid position and a positive legacy for those who shall follow. I wish Mick all the best in his change of life. I am sure that he will go on to bigger and better things elsewhere and continue to make a commitment to the community, as he has done throughout all of his career.

I would just like to say a few things about the report. I have spoken on this on previous occasions. As you know, the Australian Crime Commission is a body that has coercive powers, but more recently, in the last couple of years, the trend that has started to emerge is defiance of those coercive powers. In terms of serious and organised crime groups, we have individuals who would much rather risk a jail sentence than cooperate with the coercive powers of the commission. To that extent, some would say that they get their comeuppance at the other end of the equation, but the ACC is a body to assist the community by investigating serious and organised crime. If a matter is delayed for 18 months while it is progressing contempt proceedings through the courts, an investigative trail would ordinarily go cold. For people at the front line, particularly in relation to drug importation, those investigations regrettably become redundant.

Again, I find myself indicating that we do need to do something about this. We need to ensure that either the coercive power is respected and cooperation given or, alternatively, where there is a failure to cooperate, that swift and pretty decisive action is taken. That is, a form of contempt proceeding should be started immediately and it should be respected by the judicial processes through the courts as opposed to giving suitable respite—and 18 months is very much a suitable respite—for organised criminals. We have carried further resolutions in that respect to tighten those proceedings and to look at a statutory definition of contempt, ensuring that there is a suitable amendment made to the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002. I also pay specific regard to the dedication and professionalism of the secretariat. (Time expired)

Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Justice and Public Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on the report, Examination of the Australian Crime Commission annual report 2007-2008, of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Crime Commission. A number of things in this report greatly concern me. One of the first was the cutting of funding for conducting precursor drug forums in Asia and the Pacific. People may be wondering what that means. The Australian Crime Commission was sending representatives to conduct these forums in both Asia and the Pacific region, which were helping us to ensure that other countries were doing everything possible to stop the importation of drugs, especially those precursor drugs, into Australia. I immediately called on the government to reverse that decision and to make sure that the ACC management reinstated that as a matter of urgency.

In saying that I know that the ACC has had dramatic funding cuts. In the budget seven per cent of its staff was cut back. The previous budget saw a 15 per cent reduction. It makes the life of those working at the ACC very difficult. It has had its staff cut from 688 to 584, which is a net loss of 104 personnel.

More concerning to me, though, is the issue of seconded state and territory police and the AFP members who have been working on investigations at the ACC. In the old days under the previous government, the Howard government, we had up to 150 such personnel. That figure is now down to between 20 and 30 members. Those in the House may be wondering about the significance of this. There is a huge significance concerning the powers of the seconded members. Those working for the ACC as full-time staff under the act do not have a power of arrest and they do not have the right to carry firearms. It is only the seconded members who have that right. So when you are sending those seconded members home you are actually losing the investigation capacity of the ACC. It greatly saddens me that the ACC is going hell for leather down the path of an intelligence gathering law enforcement agency only and really losing its investigative capacity.

We have a situation where there is an outlaw motorcycle gang war going on in this country. You would have thought that the perfect body to target this at a national level would be the ACC. We have state and territory members seconded there. Sadly, because of what this government has done, that cannot be achieved. There were actually 13 intelligence operations and only five special investigations conducted by the ACC during the reporting period, and just 15 full-time investigators remain with the ACC. However, I would like to acknowledge the significant results that the ACC officers achieved despite their massive budget losses. In particular they conducted 780 examinations with their coercive powers in the reporting period to 30 June 2008, resulting in 591 charges being laid and 105 drug seizures. This is a fantastic result.

The committee made a number of recommendations. Every year the committee on a bipartisan note puts forward the recommendation that we want to see the Commissioner of Taxation on the Australian Crime Commission board. Again, I am told that it is close. We need this to happen as a matter of urgency. It will greatly empower the ACC. We heard the member for Werriwa talking about recommendations made in the Trowell report. We need the government to act. They are always talking about acting decisively, but at this stage we have serious criminals flouting the laws, not worrying about whether they suffer any sort of repercussions by not giving evidence. We need statutory contempt to be immediately instated into the act to give the examiners some real power. If people do not want to cooperate let us make their life hell, because they are making other people’s lives hell.

I would like to thank the secretariat, the chair, Steve Hutchins, and all the committee members. It has been a very bipartisan committee, as has been the report. Finally, I wish Alistair Milroy all the best in his future, and all the best to John Lawler, the new CEO. (Time expired)