Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Justice and Customs and relates to the minister’s continual claims over the past two months that ‘the AFP has had no trouble in recruiting people’. Is the minister aware that last night in a Senate committee hearing the AFP admitted that it fell short of its target by 452 personnel last year? Doesn’t this follow shortfalls of 83 personnel in 2003-04 and 123 in 2004-05? Isn’t it the case that many of the shortfalls are in specialist jobs in forensics and intelligence, critical in the fight against terrorism and organised crime? Given this evidence, can the minister indicate whether he stands by his earlier claims that ‘the AFP has had no trouble in recruiting’?