Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to have incorporated into Hansard additional information in answer to a question asked of me yesterday by Senator Di Natale.

Leave granted.

The answer read as follows—

AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE INVOLVEMENT WITH INDONESIA NATIONAL POLICE

1. Australia and Indonesia have had a Memorandum of Understanding regarding transnational crime in place since June 2002 and, as a result of the first Bali bombings, signed a joint investigations agreement in relation to that case on 18 October 2002. The AFP provides capacity building assistance in support of the Indonesian National Police (INP), including Detachment 88. The capacity building initiatives delivered by the AFP in Indonesia include the provision of training to both INP and Detachment 88 officers, provided through the joint Australian-Indonesian, Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation (JCLEC). The involvement of the AFP in training programs at JCLEC allows the AFP to impress on regional counterparts some of the AFP values such as human rights and ethics in policing. Importantly the principles of human rights are embedded into all JCLEC programs.

The APP is aware of allegations of human rights abuses by Detachment 88. The AFP engagement with Detachment 88 is through the INP Executive in Jakarta.

2. The AFP is aware of media reporting in The Age on 1 November 2011; however the AFP has no mandate to investigate the conduct of foreign police within another country. Any investigation into the conduct of INP officers and their intervention in the Freeport Mine industrial action is a matter for the Indonesian authorities.

The AFP will continue to provide capacity building assistance to the INP and Detachment 88 in support of mutual law enforcement and security objectives.