Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Home Affairs. Will the minister update the House on how the government will assist the Iraqi police service?

Bob Debus (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. As the House would be aware, the government has provided nearly $14 million of support for the Iraqi police service in the recent budget. That funding is to provide for forensic and technical training and for the development of management and leadership skills for up to 243 members of the Iraqi police service. Each year over the next three years approximately 81 Iraqi police service members will receive training under two courses, one in forensics and one in management.

In the forensics stream, they will learn how to better manage crime scenes to identify, record and collect evidence so that it will not be contaminated when it is finally analysed. In other words, they will learn to become better at police work. Annually, 51 officers will undertake forensic and technical training in Canberra, with access to the specialist expertise of the AFP’s forensic scientists. The AFP has come to be highly regarded for its ability to help law enforcement bodies in various countries to improve their investigatory techniques. It has provided training across our region in dealing with transnational crimes, including people smuggling, human trafficking and child sex tourism, and in surveillance techniques and disaster victim identification. Thirty Iraqi police—middle and senior level officers—each year for the next three years will also receive management and leadership training delivered through the Australian Institute of Police Management at Manly in Sydney.

A team of four specialist AFP personnel went to Baghdad earlier this year to determine the feasibility of providing this training and a program management team is now being established in Australia to coordinate the training that will begin later in the year. Australia is continuing to support Iraq with reconstruction and humanitarian assistance. It is obvious enough that the establishment of strong law enforcement capacity will help Iraq achieve stability for its postwar reconstruction. In conclusion, there are significant challenges for this program to provide the Iraqi police force with improved skills. But they will be able to take those skills home and use them to train local police into the future, and we look forward to providing that support.