Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Can I say firstly that I have been personally greatly impressed with the quality of leadership and direction that has been given to the Australian Federal Police by Commissioner Keelty. I think his reappointment for a second five-year term was evidence of the confidence that the government has in his leadership and in the senior executives within the Australian Federal Police. I will get you a detailed briefing on the actual numbers. I probably had it for question time but I did not bring it with me in the folder that I have. Somebody has gone to see if they can retrieve it.

My recollection is that there has been very considerable growth in resourcing of the Australian Federal Police. The way in which those resources are deployed, of course, presents some very significant management challenges for the commissioner and his management team because the work in relation to Commonwealth issues has been growing in complexity and number. Some of them, we understand, in relation to pornography and paedophilia, which I mentioned today, are matters with which the Australian Federal Police, given the volume of complaints, may have some difficulty. There are other areas in which the Commonwealth is expected to be involved in enforcing laws. We resource the Australian Federal Police in this budget to be able to deal with copyright issues, because they have not been seen as a priority matter before.

The counterterrorism role is a very significant one to which the Australian Federal Police have responded very fully. The large number of overseas deployments have put them under very considerable pressure. Traditionally, there have been overseas deployments. The Cyprus one would be well known for the fact that Australians have participated in it over a long period of time. That has given the opportunity not only for the Australian Federal Police but also, in a number of cases, for senior police from our states and territories to participate offshore. I think Nick Kaldas, who is assistant commissioner in New South Wales and deals with counterterrorism issues in the New South Wales Police force, was a person who spent a good deal of time seconded to deal with policing issues in Iraq. So over a period of time I think we have been well served by the Australian Federal Police.

But the complaint, I gather, is that some would argue that, in a policing model, more of the functions that in the Australian Federal Police have been performed administratively should be performed by commissioned officers. I am not making those decisions, but I am not sure that that is necessarily the case. But it is the complaint, particularly of the association or the union representing police that, if you look at the state police services, they have a larger proportion of commissioned officers. I think they were talking about 80 per cent in some of the statements I saw and they suggest that the Australian Federal Police is something of the order of 60 per cent. I think that does reflect the fact that some tasks can be undertaken by people who are not necessarily sworn officers and the capacity of the service is not necessarily reduced.

At the moment there are quite significant challenges that the Australian Federal Police face in recruiting staff. I know that there are reports that they have been poaching staff from state and territory police services. It is the case that, as part of its staffing for both the international deployment functions and aviation security, we have advertised quite extensively and have sought to fill positions in that way. But, in relation to the actual strategy, and the proportion that are commissioned and the proportion that are undertaking other tasks, I will get the honourable member a further written brief.

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