Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Ellison in his capacity as the Minister for Justice and Customs. I think all in this chamber would congratulate the Australian Customs Service on the work they do to ensure the security of our borders. I ask the minister if he could update the Senate on measures being taken by the Australian government to enhance the capacity of the Australian Customs Service, particularly in its maritime area, so that it can do even better in its work on securing our borders.

Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Ian Macdonald for an important question, one which all Australians regard as very important, particularly in his native state of Queensland. I can say that what the Customs Service announced the other day were contracts in excess of $15 million to use private vessels for the purposes of towing suspected illegal fishing vessels back to port and also transporting those illegal fishermen who have been apprehended at sea. It comes from a total package of $389 million which was announced earlier this year in relation to our efforts to combat illegal fishing in our northern waters—and we saw, just recently, Senator Abetz having a roundtable with fishing ministers. This is another part of the whole-of-government approach to securing our borders. It is a contract with 20 private vessels. What it does is free up the time that Customs vessels and naval vessels can be on patrol, looking out for the security of our borders and looking out in particular for illegal fishing. This has been a big issue for us.

In fact, I recall that, when Senator Ian Macdonald was the fishing minister, discussions started with the fishing industry then in relation to the use of private vessels. It is something that the industry supports very strongly. What we are going to do is use assets in the northern sector of Australia which are there for other purposes, such as fishing, mining, oil and gas, in a very efficient, cost-effective manner, whereby we can use those vessels with experienced crew to assist us in towing vessels back to port which otherwise would take up the time of naval vessels and Customs vessels. This frees up those vessels to get out on-station and keep on patrolling Australia’s borders. It is something we announced earlier this year, and we are very pleased to have the cooperation of the private sector in this regard.

These vessels will be operating from Dampier, Broome, Cairns, Townsville and Darwin and will be available on a stand-by basis. The strategy involved is that we will be using a pool of vessels—as I say, 20. Two of those will be used both for towing and for transporting illegal fishers, 16 will be used solely for the purposes of towing suspected illegal fishing vessels and the remaining two will be used to bring back to port those suspected illegal fishermen.

The opposition can carp and whinge and criticise this, but what they are doing is ignoring the very good work, as pointed out by Senator Ian Macdonald, that the Australian Customs Service is doing with Navy in patrolling our borders. This is a sensible initiative, one which the private sector and other stakeholders supported and one which is cost effective. It means that we can use those assets which are on station to assist us in freeing up Navy and Customs vessels to get out there and have more time to patrol our northern borders, especially in relation to illegal fishing, which is of great concern to this government and of course to the fishing industry in this country. This is another solid initiative in the whole-of-government approach to securing our borders.