Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Australian Border Force Bill 2015 and the Customs and Other Legislation Amendment (Australian Border Force) Bill 2015. Labor supports this reform, which delivers on a commitment that was made by the member for Blaxland as the justice minister in the former Labor government to establish the Australian Border Force. A single, integrated front-line operational border entity, the Australian Border Force will be charged with enforcing customs and immigration laws and protecting Australia's borders.

In 2013, on the advice of the Customs Reform Board established by Labor to provide recommendations about action needed to oversee the implementation of customs and border protection reform, Labor announced its blueprint for reform, flagging major structural and cultural renewal within Customs and Border Protection. It has been described as a milestone in the Customs and Border Protection Service's reform journey. The blueprint sets out a vision for the future, with an eye to it bolstering the protection of trade and travel.

Labour foresaw the difficulties in store for our border protection team and worked to alleviate the pressure through sensible changes and a stronger focus on the needs of the future. To do this, we set about modernising our business systems, our processes and our intelligence capability so that they were more suited to handling a greater load of responsibility. The challenge was not just more work; the work of Customs was also to become more complicated. This meant that we had to get the operating model right and make sure that Customs people received the right training and skills in order to do this important work. Strong leadership was, and remains, vitally important if we are to continue to meet the community's expectations of our borders, which is why Labor conducted the Capability Review of Customs and Border Protection. In 2013, this review identified areas where change was needed. They included leadership, workforce, the business model and enabling technology and innovation.

Labor's blueprint for reform made groundbreaking progress, with changes through measures such as establishing a Special Integrity Adviser to manage complex cases of serious misconduct. We ensured that Strategic Border Command was supported by a string of regional commands which managed the border through highly focused and effective intervention, while also coordinating national specialised capabilities, such as detector dogs; surveillance; and advanced ship search and border technologies, including X-ray and trace detection, field communications and cyber expertise.

Labor also took steps to strengthen the relationship between Customs and the Australian Federal Police, featuring a new model for undertaking border crime investigations involving joint decision making about investigative referrals for offences under the Customs Act. Labor modernised customs and border protection operations by moving towards full electronic data reporting for all goods arriving and departing our borders. Labor understands that improving our processes at the border requires constant refinement and modification to keep up with best practice. That is why this reform in that vein has been supported by Labor.

The Australian Border Force Bill provides the legislative framework for the ABF to be formed within the Department of Immigration and Border Protection from 1 July this year. This will bring the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and the Australian Border Force more clearly within the national security sector. The creation of the ABF and its associated enhanced security and integrity measures will allow greater vigour to be applied to the consideration of visa applications. However, importantly, the ABF will have no greater powers than currently exist for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service.

Specifically, this bill will establish the statutory office and role of the ABF Commissioner, who will have control of the operations of the Australian Border Force. The bill provides that the ABF Commissioner and APS employees in the ABF will be able to exercise powers under the Customs Act, the Migration Act, the Maritime Powers Act and other Commonwealth acts. The bill provides for binding written directions to be issued by the ABF Commissioner and Secretary regarding the administration and control of the ABF and the department respectively, and in relation to the performance of functions or exercise of powers under laws of the Commonwealth.

The bill provides the ability to require immigration and border protection workers to undergo alcohol and prohibited drug testing. It establishes secrecy and disclosure provisions for staff working within the ABF and it provides for the management of serious misconduct, including resignation and termination provisions for employees involved in serious misconduct.

The Customs and Other Legislation Amendment (Australian Border Force) Bill 2015 is consequential to the ABF Bill. It will repeal the Customs Administration Act upon commencement of the ABF Act and make consequential amendments to other portfolio legislation. Repeal of the Customs Administration Act will abolish the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service as a statutory agency.

The ABF Commissioner will have a dual role as the Comptroller-General of Customs, with responsibility for enforcement of customs law and collection of border-related revenue. The Commissioner will have the same standing as other heads of national-security-related agencies, such as the AFP Commissioner and Chief of Defence Force. The bill allows the ABF Commissioner to set and vary the essential qualifications for ABF staff only—not those in the Department of Immigration and Border Protection more generally. This is intended to assist in ensuring that the workforce has the necessary skills and attributes relevant to the roles being performed in the ABF.

The bill provides that if the Secretary terminates the employment of an employee of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, and the Secretary or the ABF Commissioner reasonably believes that the employee's conduct or behaviour amounts to serious misconduct, the Secretary or the Commissioner may make a declaration to that effect. This provision is already in force for staff of the Australian Crime Commission, the Customs and Border Protection Service and the AFP. It was introduced as part of integrity measures for all law enforcement agencies. Interestingly, this provision has never been used in Customs or in the Crime Commission, and has only twice been called upon in the Australian Federal Police.

The bill contains provisions making it an offence to record or disclose information obtained by a person in their capacity as an entrusted person. An 'entrusted person' is the secretary, the ABF Commissioner and all staff of Department of Immigration and Border Protection. A breach of this provision would be punishable by imprisonment of up to two years. The provisions do not remove any obligations under, and are consistent with, the Privacy Act.

The Customs and Other Legislation Amendment (Australian Border Force) Bill 2015 contains amendments to the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 which acknowledge that IBP workers in the ABF will be engaged in a number of unique and high-risk environments that are    necessary for Australia's national security and defence. It is critical these workers can be confident that they are able to perform the tasks required of them professionally and diligently in what can be demanding environments.    In this regard, the Customs bill extends the assurance currently provided to Australia's national security agencies and Defence Force to the ABF and its workers, to explicitly enable them to address the unique issues that arise in relation to Australia's border protection.

The department will feature roles and responsibilities in the areas of regulation, enforcement, investigation, facilitation, revenue collection and service delivery. All staff of the department, including those within the ABF, will continue to be employed under the Australian Public Service Act, subject to the same terms and conditions. The decision to bring all Department of Immigration and Border Protection and ABF staff within the same 'integrity framework', regardless of their specific role, is aimed at fostering a common workplace culture within the merged agencies, allowing greater flexibility for staff to move within and between Department of Immigration and Border Protection roles and Australian Border Force roles and will allow all staff to have access to the same information and communication systems. This strengthening of the integrity measures in these departments comes about as a result of Australian Crime Commission and AFP investigations and prosecutions of officers within the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service that have been involved, in the past, in criminal activities. The recommendations were made in the blueprint established by Labor when in government and implemented by the then Minister for Justice, the member for Blaxland.

The new department will operate under the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service drug-testing regime. The opposition expects the Australian Border Force to implement this regime in consultation with affected staff and, of course, with their relevant union, the Community and Public Sector Union. As should reasonably be expected, the portfolio has zero tolerance for the possession, use or trafficking of prohibited drugs, and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and the Australian Customs and Border Protection service are alcohol-free workplaces. This is the same drug and alcohol regime that currently exists for all Customs and Border Protection staff, regardless of which part of Customs they work within. Again, it is intended to reflect the fact that all Department of Immigration and Border Protection staff will have access to sensitive information and be in a position to have influence at a national and international security level. It is vitally important that the Public Service is held to the highest levels of integrity as it seeks to maintain integrity in the procedures and laws necessary in the management of Australia's borders, the integrity of which is of vital importance to the individual freedoms of Australians, the flow of people and the movement of goods.

Australian Customs and Border Protection officials experience many significant challenges at our borders. Economic imperatives mean that importers and exporters expect seamless border processing that meets world's best practice. Security imperatives mean that the need to protect Australia from those attempting to breach the border will not lessen. Substantially increasing volumes of traffic in terms of passengers and cargo, the increasing complexity of travel routes and supply chains, as well as the ongoing threat from criminal infiltration all require constant enhancement to cope with evolving and sophisticated threats and risks at the border.

International air and sea passengers are projected to increase from around 34 million in 2013-14 to 40 million by the final year of the forward estimates, while incoming air cargo is projected to increase by 125 per cent over the same period. The result is more pressure on the border, yet intervention times in which to prevent the illegal movement of people and goods remain limited. For many outside our borders, Australia is an attractive place in which to do business. Australia is home to a dynamic, globalised marketplace the envy of the world, and effective border control plays a central role in maintaining our global competitiveness by fostering rapid movement associated with entry and exit from Australia. But, in the same way that the global economy benefits from greater and more efficient movement of goods between national economies, so too do the passage and trade of illicit goods.

Organised crime groups are constantly seeking to breach our secure borders. Transnational organised crime is now big business. In 2009 it was estimated to have generated US$870 billion—an amount equal to 1.5 per cent of global GDP at the time. Unsurprisingly, those engaged in organised crime energetically, aggressively and innovatively compete for their share of illicit markets. They are profit driven and employ increasingly complex network structures and ways of concealing their activities and their identities. By ensuring effective border control, we are able to regulate what goes out of the country and under what conditions and, most importantly, what comes in. Of course, to do this effectively and to ensure there are no unnecessary impediments to the movement of people and goods in and out of Australia, oversight must be provided by a competent and well-resourced department.

Labor is keenly aware of the need for reform in the customs and border protection space. That is why we initiated the review process in government, that is why we implemented the blueprint reforms and that is why we support this reform. In government, we began the work necessary to overcome the pressures we foresaw for our Customs and Border Protection team. Strong leadership of course remains vital to the task, in addition to getting the operating model right and ensuring the people charged with working to maintain the integrity of our borders have the training, skills and abilities necessary to do their job. Labor supports these bills and their continuation of the work we did in government to strengthen the Customs portfolio and maintain the highest levels of integrity at our nation's borders.

See this speech in context