Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, I apologise. Thank you for your guidance.

It is clearly going to affect the ability of those agencies to do the job they are tasked with by this parliament. You cannot reduce funding and resources and expect to get the same result. This is the problem with this government. Never listen to what they say, because platitudes come easily. You need to look at what they have done; they have undermined the ability of all of our front-line border protection agencies to do their jobs. You certainly cannot march in here and start lauding the efforts of those agencies.

These cuts are felt on the streets of every electorate. When you are dealing with street crime, you are usually dealing with drug crime. When you have a border protection agency that does not have the resources necessary to protect our borders, then you are increasing the ability of criminals to bring drugs to our streets.

Every time police forces in our states go out there to do their jobs, they can be sure that they are not receiving the support they deserve from the federal government, and that the federal government's actions—cutting the front-line agencies that are supposed to be helping them—are directly making their jobs harder. All of the state police forces are aware of the extent of these cuts and of the effects they are having on their ability to fight crime.

I understand from the media that this new minister is well regarded in the New South Wales Right of the Labor Party.

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