Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on today's matter of public importance: the threat to Australia posed by the government's budget cuts to Customs and Border Protection. To start with, this is a government that has been able to find money for almost every dubious cause under the sun—from Grocery Watch, to set-top boxes, to carbon tax propaganda, to the failed green loan schemes and even something called the Flannery Centre. But when it comes to something that is really important, our front-line border security, they have made cuts.

The member for Canberra gave an outstanding stand-up display on the importance of public servants. Maybe she would like to go through some of the cuts that her government has made to the Public Service. To start with, there has been a $20.8 million cut to aerial surveillance, reducing it by 2,215 hours. I thought you might like to stay and listen to these cuts that your government has imposed. Further, in 2010-11, there were 250 jobs axed from Customs, and a further 90 jobs were axed this year, for a total of 340 jobs. On top of that, we have a $9.3 million reduction in capital funding for Customs. On top of that, we have further cuts of $17.3 million over the next five years for the management of our vessels which monitor illegal fishing. Further still, in the 2009-10 budget we saw $58.1 million cut from cargo screening. Because of these cuts, we have seen an unprecedented 25 per cent cut in the number of sea cargo inspections and, remarkably, a 75 per cent cut in air cargo inspections.

But it does not stop there. There are further cuts still. We have seen funding to our National Counter-Terrorism Committee cut by $12 million, we have seen a further cut of $8.8 million from ASIO training and we have seen a further $6.9 million cut from ASIO security checks for visa applicants. We have seen all these cuts while we have had unmitigated waste in area after area.

These cuts have, of course, been great news for drug dealers, smugglers of illegal weapons, criminal gangs and terrorists. These cuts have led to the Labor government failing to protect our nation from the illegal importation of guns. In south-western Sydney, an area under siege, in the last 12 months we have had 88 drive-by shootings, including in the suburb of Panania in the electorate I represent. Just today a man appeared in the Sutherland court, a stone's throw from my electorate office, on a charge of importing 150 Glock pistols at Sylvania between August last year and yesterday, when he was charged and arrested. The comments of New South Wales Police Commissioner Scipione are quite pertinent. He said today:

I'm concerned that anyone's involved in these organised criminal groups that are in the business of trafficking guns from the other side of the world. This is a serious problem. This isn't just a border security issue, this is a national security issue. It's something that we need to understand is a major concern not only to law enforcement, it should be to every person that lives in this nation.

New South Wales Police Commissioner Scipione said it correctly: 'This is something that we need to understand is a major concern to every person that lives in our nation.' It should be a concern to every person that lives in this nation. Unfortunately, it does not appear to be a concern to members who sit on the other side of the chamber. How can any responsible government faced with this problem we have in Sydney continue to agree to slash funding to our Customs agency which results in a cut of 75 per cent to air cargo screening? The residents of south-western Sydney are currently under siege. They need something to be done by this Labor government, not cuts to border security and protection.

This recent case at Sylvania illustrates how porous our borders have been and how easy it has been for criminals to import illegal firearms into Australia without being detected by Customs screening. We heard the Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Justice saying at the dispatch box a few minutes ago how closely he has worked with New South Wales Police Minister Mike Gallacher. Obviously the minister has not heard what the New South Wales Police Minister said today:

Police will detail ... in the coming days the full magnitude of what they have identified … and quite simply had the federal government acted earlier what could have been stopped.

Those are the comments of the New South Wales Police Minister earlier today. In the last few hours we have also had New South Wales Police confirm that one Glock pistol was seized in January and that it was only one of the 220 Glock pistols they believe were imported into Sydney and were not detected by Customs in the last three months. So let us be clear on this. According to New South Wales Police, from this one source there have been 219 Glock pistols imported into Sydney that have not been detected by Customs and are currently on the streets of Sydney. What a concern it is for every resident to know that 219 additional Glock pistols are on their streets. Despite this we have the Labor government reducing inspections of air cargo by 75 per cent.

But the cuts do not go just to illegal importation of weapons. There are also cuts to ASIO and antiterrorist funding. It is worthwhile remembering that only in December last year we had three Islamic extremists convicted of conspiring to plan a terrorist attack on Holsworthy Barracks and they were sentenced to 18 years jail. This terrorist cell had actually planned to enter the barracks armed with military style weapons and shoot 500 people before they killed themselves. This is the reality on the streets of south-western Sydney today. Only last week an ABC News article—and I think it is worth the government of the day reading and remembering this—said:

Sydney police have seized an AK-47 assault rifle from a house in the city's south-west.

A 46-year-old man was arrested at the home on Brennan Road at Yagoona during the raid by the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad yesterday afternoon.

Police say they found the rifle along with a 30-round magazine and a combat helmet.

The man has been charged with possessing a prohibited firearm and not storing a firearm safely.

The gun is to undergo ballistic examination.

That was one week ago on the streets of Sydney. This is the reality of what we face in Sydney, yet despite this we have the government slashing the resources going to Customs and frontline border security. Shame, absolute shame! The member for Stirling has made it crystal clear today that the coalition will reverse these cuts that have allowed hundreds of guns onto the streets of Sydney. We will ensure that the people of Sydney are kept safe by making sure we have adequate border protection and Customs protection.

Today the minister was given the opportunity to admit that Labor had made a terrible mistake, to admit that Labor's misguided actions and cuts had imperilled the lives of every Sydneysider. They had the opportunity here today to spell out very clearly that they would immediately reverse these cuts and give Customs the resources they need. They failed to take that opportunity. The residents of Sydney need to be very clear that there are two choices: the coalition, which supports reversing these cuts and giving our Customs officials the resources that they need to make sure this 75 per cent cut to airport screening is reversed, or the government, which plans to do nothing and stand by and watch as illegal weapons are imported into Sydney in record numbers.

I will quickly turn to a short issue. This government is also cutting $34 million from passenger processing at our airports with these cuts. This simply means there will be longer and longer queues for international passengers coming into Sydney. Every Australian who is going overseas in the next 12 months needs to know that when they come back into Sydney they are going to face queues hundreds of yards long and they will be queuing for over an hour to get through Customs—all because of this government's cuts. I would suggest that this government put up a sign at the international terminal to advise everyone standing in these queues for hours that they are simply being forced to stand in them for hours because of the reckless and wasteful spending of this government. We also need to consider what effect this will have on our tourism industry. We have overseas tourists coming in after long 20-hour flights, from New York or London, who will now be forced to stand for hours in queues—so that will be further damaging our tourism industry. (Time expired)

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