Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

In relation to the number of sworn officers since the election of the government, there has been an additional 181 officers—that is a 6.7 per cent increase—and we are ahead of our commitment to ensure that we have 500 additional police in the five years, ahead of that forecast. So that is another assertion made by those opposite which is entirely mischievous and untrue. Thirdly, the member for Stirling and the member for Wide Bay have accused the government of ‘walking away from air security officers or sky marshals’. The opposition is wrong, wrong and wrong. The fact is that the Air Security Officer Program continues to provide an integral layer of security at our airports and there has been no reduction whatsoever in the funding for the program.

It is one thing to be loose with the truth in some other areas of public policy but, when it comes to national security, we would expect those opposite to join with us to combat serious and organised crime and to combat terrorism. What we do not expect is for them to mislead the public in terms of what the government is doing. I suggest to the opposition that they join the government—put aside their distortions and their political opportunism—and support our border and intelligence agencies by embracing these very important national security measures.

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