Mr McClelland asked the Minister representing the Minister for Justice and Customs, upon notice, on 11 May 2004:

(1) In respect of the 2003-2004 Budget measures titled “A National Illicit Drugs Strategy - enhanced financial intelligence to target illicit drug trafficking and related activities”, what sum of the additional funding has been spent during 2003 - 2004.

(2) In respect of additional staff (a) how many have been employed, (b) what are their classifications, (c) what are their functions, and (d) what has been the cost of employing them.

(3) What additional equipment has been purchased and installed to support the new staff and what was its cost.

Mr Ruddock (Attorney-General) —The Minister for Justice and Customs has provided the following answer to the honourable member's question:

(1) Current Expenditure at 30/5/04 is $3.205 million

(2) (a) 10 additional staff have been employed

(b) and (c)

(d) The cost of employing these officers was approx. $0.765 million comprising $0.727 million for salaries and associated on costs plus $0.038 million for recruitment costs.

(3) Additional equipment that has been purchased and installed to support the new staff were as follows:

Data Mining Software

IT Development Server (CPU, SCSI storage arrays and tape library units)

Fitout for additional office accommodation in Sydney and Melbourne

Office furniture for additional office accommodation

Security equipment and infrastructure for additional office accommodation

Data and power cabling for additional office accommodation

PABX upgrade & handsets

Additional PCs and printers

Network Equipment

Software Licencing

Network Cabling

Total cost: $1.242 million