Download PDF

www.pm.gov.au

A SAFER MORE SECURE AUSTRALIA

The Coalition will further its commitment to protecting the Australian community from crime and safeguarding our borders by calling a national leaders summit to develop a new national framework for dealing with transnational crime and terrorism and by providing an additional $134.7 million over four years to fund comprehensive national law enforcement initiatives.

A re-elected Coalition Government will convene a special Leaders’ Summit on Transnational Crime and Terrorism to develop a new framework under which transnational crime and terrorism can be dealt with by law enforcement agencies at a national level.

One difficulty the Commonwealth has in effectively fighting transnational crime and terrorism is that these crimes may not be strictly federal offences. The present scope for AFP officers to investigate State offences is limited and the only way that the Commonwealth can intervene is through referral of an investigation to the National Crime Authority. However, this referral process is a complex co-operative scheme which can be very time consuming in commencing investigations, making it difficult to deal with modern national and transnational crime syndicates effectively.

Record funding has been invested by the Howard Government in our law enforcement agencies, both to fight transnational crime at home and, at its source, overseas. As a result of this record funding, Commonwealth law enforcement agencies are now recognised around the world for their expertise, skill and efficiency. More illicit drugs are being seized than ever before, and as a result, criminal intelligence authorities report a heroin drought in capital cities around Australia. As a consequence of this reduced supply, overdose deaths have dropped dramatically. Unlike Labor, the Coalition will never support drug injecting rooms or heroin trials.

While we have delivered on our 1998 law and order commitments in full, the Coalition believes there is more that must be done to keep our borders secure and reduce the impact of serious and organised crime on our community.

To strengthen this fight against crime a re-elected Coalition Government’s plan will commit to an additional $134.7 million over four years to fund comprehensive law enforcement initiatives, including:

− $47 million new funding over four years to expand the successful Law Enforcement Cooperation Program. As part of these measures, 16 additional AFP officers will be placed overseas, taking the total to 58 positions in at least 24 countries.

− $47 million new funding over three years to double the AFP’s mobile strike team capacity to 200. Modelled on the highly successful National Illicit Drug Strategy ‘Avian’ strike teams, 100 extra AFP officers will be deployed throughout the country

PRIME MINISTER

2

to respond to serious crimes including drug trafficking, people smuggling, major fraud, terrorism and politically motivated violence.

− $21.4 million new funding over four years to expand the AFP ‘Axiom’ undercover policing program enabling the AFP to conduct more effective targeted operations into serious and organised crime.

− $7.2 million new funding over three years to boost the rapid response capabilities of the AFP through two new remote command centres complete with telecommunications, computer and intelligence facilities. It will also provide for a mobile forensic laboratory.

− $9.5 million new funding over four years to upgrade the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence ALERT database to provide law enforcement with an intelligence forecast capacity to identify and then aggressively target existing and emerging criminal activities.

− $1.6 million new funding over four years to expand the research, forensic science and development capabilities of the AFP and take advantage of new and emerging forensic techniques and technologies.

− $1 million over four years to support the highly successful National Crime Stoppers network in consultation with each Board of Directors.

Our plan for a safer and more secure Australia will also expand on our CRIMTRAC initiative to implement a National Stolen Motor Vehicle register as part of a comprehensive plan to tackle motor vehicle theft.

A re-elected Coalition Government will also implement legislation for the return of proceeds of crime to ensure ill-gotten gains seized from criminals are invested in the fight against crime and into supporting drug treatment and diversionary programs for drug addicts.

The Coalition is committed to delivering strong, modern and effective law enforcement and to creating a safer community for all Australians.

Impact on the Forward Estimates (Cash estimate) 2002-03 $m

2003-04 $m 2004-05 $m

2005-06 $m

Total $m

Expansion of Law Enforcement Co-operation Program 6.75 12.75 13.75 13.75 47.00

AFP additional mobile strike team capacity 0.00 15.67 15.67 15.66 47.00

Extension of Project Axiom 5.35 5.35 5.35 5.35 21.40

AFP rapid response capabilities 2.00 2.40 2.80 0.00 7.20

Research, forensic science and development capabilities 0.30 0.40 0.40 0.50 1.60

ABCI Intelligence Database 1.38 2.37 2.38 3.37 9.50

Crime Stoppers 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 1.00

Total 16.03 39.19 40.60 38.88 134.70

30 October 2001

OUR FUTURE ACTION PLAN

A Safer More Secure Australia

A Safer More Secure Australia reaffirms and renews the Coalition’s commitment to protecting Australia’s borders and fighting serious and organised crime.

Justice and Customs 1

A Safer More Secure Australia

Table of Contents

Our Future Action Plan - A Summary Our Future Action Plan - A Summary Our Future Action Plan - A Summary Our Future Action Plan - A Summary 2 2 2 2

Part 1 Part 1 Part 1 Part 1 Law Enforcement Initiatives Law Enforcement Initiatives Law Enforcement Initiatives Law Enforcement Initiatives 5 5 5 5

A Special Leaders’ Summit 5

B $47m Expansion of the Law Enforcement Cooperation Program 6

C Enhancing Police Operational Capability 7

(i) $47m New Funding over Three Years to Double the Australian Federal Police’s Mobile Strike Team Capacity 7

(ii) $21.4m New Funding over Four Years to Expand the Australian Federal Police ‘Axiom’ Undercover Policing Program 7

(iii) $7.2m New Funding to Boost the Rapid Response Capabilities of the Australian Federal Police 8 (iv) $1.6m New Funding over Four Years to Expand the Research, Forensic Science and Development

Capabilities of the Australian Federal Police 8 (v) $9.5m New Funding over Four Years to Upgrade the Australian Bureau of Criminal (ABCI)

Intelligence Database 8

D National Stolen Motor Vehicle Register 9

E Returning Proceeds of Crime 9

F National Crime Stoppers 10

Highlights of the Government’s Achievements Highlights of the Government’s Achievements Highlights of the Government’s Achievements Highlights of the Government’s Achievements 11 11 11 11

Labor’s Record Labor’s Record Labor’s Record Labor’s Record 17 17 17 17

2 A Safer More Secure Australia

Our Future Action Plan - A Summary

Protecting the Australian community from crime and safeguarding our borders is recognised by the Howard Government as a national priority. Our commitment is to deliver strong, modern and effective law enforcement and create a safer community for all Australians.

Transnational crime is one of the key challenges faced by law enforcement officials worldwide. Criminals today are highly mobile, well resourced and frequently involved in multiple criminal activities such as illicit drug trafficking, people smuggling and money laundering. Unlike state police forces, the role of Commonwealth law enforcement is to tackle these types of crimes when organised on a national or international level.

Record funding has been invested by the Howard Government in our law enforcement agencies, both to fight transnational crime at home and, at its source, overseas.

As a result of this record funding, Commonwealth law enforcement agencies are now recognised around the world for their expertise, skill and efficiency. More illicit drugs are being seized than ever before, and as a result, criminal intelligence authorities report a heroin drought in capital cities around Australia. As a consequence of this reduced supply, overdose deaths have dropped dramatically. Unlike Labor, the Coalition will never support drug injecting rooms or heroin trials.

While we have delivered on our 1998 law and order commitments in full, the Coalition believes there is more that must be done to keep our borders secure and reduce the impact of serious and organised crime on our community.

In contrast, Labor policies, such as their Coastguard proposal, would have a disastrous operational impact on the Australian Federal Police (AFP) by seriously fragmenting the organisation. Under Labor, Federal Officers would be split between new Community Policing Zones, a Federal Protective Service and a Coastguard. The remainder would be left with a vastly reduced and far less effective organisation.

To strengthen our borders and the fight against crime a re-elected Coalition Government will commit to:

• A Special Leaders Summit on Transnational Crime and Terrorism. If re-elected, the Howard Government will convene a special summit of State and Territory leaders to develop a new framework under which transnational crime and terrorism can be dealt with by law enforcement at a Commonwealth level.

Justice and Customs 3

• An additional $134.7 million over four years to fund comprehensive law enforcement initiatives, including:

• $47 million new funding over four years to expand the successful Law Enforcement Cooperation Program. This initiative will significantly enhance Federal police cooperation with overseas law enforcement agencies and increase the gathering and flow of intelligence critical to apprehending drug traffickers and people smugglers. As part of these measures, 16 additional AFP officers will be placed overseas, taking the total to 58 positions in at least 24 countries.

• $47 million new funding over three years to double the AFP’s mobile strike team capacity to 200. Modelled on the highly successful National Illicit Drug Strategy ‘Avian’ strike teams, 100 extra Australian Federal Police officers will be deployed around Australia to respond to serious crimes at short notice including illicit drug trafficking, people smuggling, major fraud, terrorism and politically motivated violence.

• $21.4 million new funding over four years to expand the AFP ‘Axiom’ undercover policing program. This initiative will enable the AFP to conduct more effective targeted operations into serious and organised criminal activities such as money laundering, people smuggling, illicit drug trafficking and electronic crime.

• $7.2 million new funding over three years to boost the rapid response capabilities of the AFP. This initiative will provide two new AFP remote command centres complete with fully operational, telecommunications, computer and intelligence facilities. It will also provide for a mobile forensic laboratory capable of being deployed anywhere within Australia or overseas.

• $9.5 million new funding over four years to upgrade the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence ALERT database. This initiative will provide law enforcement with an intelligence forecast capacity to identify and then aggressively target existing and emerging criminal activities. It will upgrade an important crime fighting database which is used to collate, analyse and predict emerging criminal activities and trends including fraud, cybercrime, drug trafficking, serious sexual offences, money laundering and organised crime.

• $1.6 million new funding over four years to expand the research, forensic science and development capabilities of the AFP. This initiative would fund research by the AFP forensic teams to ensure they are taking advantage of new and emerging forensic techniques and technologies.

4 A Safer More Secure Australia

• The Coalition will provide an additional $1 million over four years to support the highly successful National Crime Stoppers network in consultation with each Board of Directors.

Our plan for a safer and more secure Australia will also:

• Expand on our CRIMTRAC initiative to implement a comprehensive National Stolen Motor Vehicle register as part of a comprehensive plan to tackle motor vehicle theft; and

• Implement legislation for the return of proceeds of crime to ensure ill-gotten gains seized from criminals are invested in the fight against crime and into supporting drug treatment and diversionary programs for drug addicts.

Justice and Customs 5

Part 1 Law Enforcement Initiatives

A Special Leaders’ Summit

A re-elected Coalition Government will convene a special summit of State and Territory leaders to develop a new framework under which transnational crime and terrorism can be dealt with by law enforcement at a Commonwealth level.

International criminal and terrorist groups have no respect for national or state boundaries and their activities can affect all Australians. To meet these new challenges, Commonwealth law enforcement agencies must be able to act quickly and powerfully to respond to these threats.

Potential threats that could affect the Australian community at a national level, and requiring a national response, could include cyber terrorism to significantly disrupt financial markets and institutions, and disruptions to vital infrastructure such as electricity generation, water supplies and telecommunications. Additionally, sophisticated criminal syndicates are often involved in a complex web of crime including drug trafficking, people smuggling and money laundering which extends beyond State boundaries.

While the Commonwealth has broad powers in relation to national security matters, in a Federal system the Constitution gives the power of day to day policing to State and Territory Governments. The current environment calls for greater coordination and a clearer definition of the Commonwealth’s role in dealing with significant national threats.

One difficulty in the Commonwealth’s ability to effectively fight transnational crime and terrorism is that the offences committed by these criminal groups may not be strictly federal offences.

The present scope for AFP officers to investigate State offences is very limited and the only way that the Commonwealth can intervene is through referral of investigations to the National Crime Authority.

However, this referral process is a complex co-operative scheme which can be very time consuming in commencing investigations and therefore making it difficult to deal with crime syndicates effectively.

Law enforcement agencies across Australia have an excellent record in working together to fight serious and organised crime. However, recent international events have highlighted the need for our Commonwealth law enforcement agencies to have the clear ability to deal with transnational crime and terrorism.

6 A Safer More Secure Australia

The summit would seek outcomes on:

• Ways to improve Australia’s ability to combat transnational crime and terrorism;

• Options for reforming or replacing the National Crime Authority to ensure we have a national body fully equipped to deal with future transnational criminal activities; and

• A reference of constitutional power to the Commonwealth to support an effective national response to the threats of transnational crime and terrorism.

B Expansion of the Law Enforcement Cooperation Program

• $47 million new funding over four years to expand the successful Law Enforcement Cooperation Program.

Perhaps the single greatest challenge that Australian law enforcement agencies currently face is the increasingly transnational nature of serious and organised crime.

The greater mobility of people around the world, and rapid advances in technology and communications mean that Australia cannot regard itself as a fortress standing alone against transnational crime.

Many of the serious crimes committed in Australia that affect our community have their roots in the criminal activities of highly organised and well funded criminal syndicates that operate without regard to national boundaries.

While strong domestic initiatives will always be critical to successfully combating crime, efforts to disrupt and dismantle criminal syndicates increasingly require Australian law enforcement agencies to conduct operations in foreign countries - to attack the source of the criminal activity and senior members of criminal syndicates.

To make Australia a hostile environment for criminal syndicates it is also important to make our region a hostile environment for criminals.

Through the Law Enforcement Cooperation Program some $31 million has already been invested in developing cooperative policing networks with many countries around the world. To date this cooperation has been extremely successful in the interception and upstream disruption of drug trafficking, money laundering syndicates and people smuggling.

Under this initiative to strengthen international policing links and fight crime at its source before it reaches Australia, the Coalition will fund an additional 16 strategically placed AFP officers overseas as part of the

Justice and Customs 7

Overseas Liaison Officer Network. This will take the total of funded overseas positions to 58.

This proposal will significantly enhance police cooperation with overseas law enforcement agencies and increase the gathering and flow of intelligence that is critical to successful AFP policing operations.

C Enhancing Police Operational Capability

• $86.7 million new funding over four years for a comprehensive program to enhance the operational capability of the Australian Federal Policy and the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence to ensure they are well equipped and trained to meet future law enforcement challenges.

Thirteen years of Labor Government severely damaged the AFP’s ability to combat serious and organised crime. Upon coming to Government the Howard Government made a commitment to revitalise and reform the AFP to ensure it became a world class policing agency.

To further enhance the AFP’s operational capacity to meet the new and emerging law enforcement challenges and utilised the latest technological developments, the coalition will invest a further -

(i) $47 million new funding over three years to double the Australian Federal Police’s mobile strike team capacity.

One of the first reforms to be implemented by the Howard Government was a significant increase, of around 200 additional police officers, taking the total number of police on the national beat to 2,890. 100 of these officers formed a special taskforce of 10 ‘Avian’ intelligence driven, mobile strike teams that target high-level illicit drug traffickers. Their success, evidenced by record drug seizures of heroin, cocaine and amphetamines, has reached an all time high.

This initiative builds on this success by deploying an extra 100 AFP officers around Australia to provide the additional staff and resources to respond to serious crimes such as people smuggling, major fraud, terrorism and politically motivated violence. This initiative will allow the rapid deployment of up to 200 federal agents at a moments notice as part of the ‘mobile strike teams’ around Australia.

(ii) $21.4 million new funding over four years to expand the Australian Federal Police ‘Axiom’ undercover policing program.

Undercover operations are a very effective investigative tool in the fight against serious and organised crime. Extra undercover resources will greatly enhance the AFP’s ability to fight a wide range of criminal activity such as money laundering, people smuggling, drug trafficking and electronic crime.

8 A Safer More Secure Australia

This initiative will also allow the Federal Police to take advantage of new operational provisions contained in the Measures to Combat Serious and Organised Crime Legislation introduced recently by the Howard Government.

(iii) $7.2 million new funding to boost the rapid response capabilities of the Australian Federal Police.

AFP operations are increasingly being carried out in remote areas of Australia and overseas. The tyranny of distance can impede the conduct of operations outside of major metropolitan areas and as the AFP become more successful at intercepting narcotics, it is possible drug traffickers will seek more and more remote areas to bring in their illicit cargo.

This initiative will provide two new AFP remote command centres and will be created complete with full operational, telecommunications, computer and intelligence facilities, as well as a mobile forensic laboratory capable of being deployed anywhere within Australia or overseas. These centres will allow investigations to be quickly and efficiently conducted in remote areas in which AFP investigations have previously been hampered by a lack of facilities.

(iv) $1.6 million new funding over four years to expand the research, forensic science and development capabilities of the Australian Federal Police.

With the rapid advances in forensic science and technology it is important for the AFP to ensure they are utilising the most advanced forensic procedures and technologies commercially available.

This initiative will ensure AFP Forensic Science has access to the best technologies available worldwide for forensic investigation as well as enhancing forensic support available for investigations.

(v) $9.5 million new funding over four years to upgrade the Australian Bureau of Criminal (ABCI) Intelligence Database.

National law enforcement agencies are increasingly relying on criminal intelligence to fight serious and organised criminal activity.

This initiative will fund a significant upgrade of the ABCI’s criminal intelligence database which will provide all Australian law enforcement agencies with an intelligence-forecast capacity.

This initiative will deliver significant benefits to all law enforcement agencies through the ability to more efficiently and effectively respond to community, national and international policing issues. It will allow law enforcement to identify existing, and for the first time predict emerging, criminal activities including fraud, cyber crime, illicit drugs, serious sexual offences, money laundering and organised crime.

Justice and Customs 9

D National Stolen Motor Vehicle Register

• Expand on our CRIMTRAC initiative to implement a National Stolen Motor Vehicle Register as part of a comprehensive plan to tackle motor vehicle theft.

The cost of motor vehicle theft to the Australian community is in excess of $1 billion each year, with $750 million paid to insurance clients. Intelligence reports indicate that many of the criminals involved in the theft of vehicles have substantial links to crime syndicates that engage in other criminal activity such as trading in drugs. A comprehensive approach is required to deal with this serious national problem.

Under this initiative, CrimTrac will be upgraded and the National Vehicle Register enhanced to create a National Stolen Motor Vehicle register. It will also initiate a range of integrated national initiatives that will better equip police services and the community to combat motor vehicle theft and re-birthing. Measures to be implemented include supporting the insurance industry through enhanced reporting of vehicle recoveries, and improved access to Interpol international stolen vehicle descriptions.

E Returning Proceeds of Crime

The Coalition believes criminals should not be able to benefit from their ill-gotten gains.

A re-elected Coalition government will re-introduce legislation to allow a Court to confiscate the assets of organised criminals. This will hit criminals where it hurts most - in their hip pocket. By confiscating criminals’ assets derived from drug trafficking the profit motive for these crimes is removed and dirty money will not be able to be used to finance future criminal activities.

The new forfeiture laws will apply to suspects engaged in certain serious Commonwealth offences punishable by 3 years jail or more, such as drug trafficking, money laundering, people smuggling and serious property offences.

As part of this initiative the Coalition is committed to ensuring that, confiscated ill gotten gains will be used in:

• supporting national and community programs in the fight against crime; and

• additional drug treatment and diversionary programs.

10 A Safer More Secure Australia

F National Crime Stoppers

The Coalition has taken a leading role in the promotion and coordination of practical crime prevention programs through delivering on its 1998 election commitment under its $21.4 million National Crime Prevention Program.

To further build on the National Crime Prevention Program, the Coalition will provide an additional $1 million over four years to support the highly successful National Crime Stoppers network in consultation with each Board of Directors.

The Crime Stoppers partnership between community, police and the media now operates throughout Australia and the information gathered and supplied by the community has become an important part of community policing. This initiative will increase community involvement and participation in the reporting of local crime.

Justice and Customs 11

Highlights of the Government’s Achievements

National Firearms Agreement

Following the tragic events at Port Arthur, John Howard’s leadership in implementing the national firearms agreement has resulted in 660,000 less guns in circulation in our community, and firearm related injuries have dropped by 30% over the past 5 years. The number of people killed with a firearm is now at its lowest level since the National Homicide Monitoring Program started keeping records over a decade ago.

New laws have restricted access to high-powered semi-automatic and pump action firearms to those people with a genuine need to owning, possessing or using these types of weapons such as primary producers and sporting shooters.

The Coalition has consistently demonstrated national leadership by working with the states and territories to ensure consistency in gun licensing and registration arrangements around Australia.

The reduction in firearms and new nation-wide laws have been effective in increasing community safety from firearms related violence, and making a safer and more secure Australia.

The Australian Federal Police

With the backing of tough new legislative powers and record funding over the past six years, Commonwealth law enforcement agencies have achieved record results. They are now recognised internationally for their expertise, skill and efficiency in dealing with serious and organised crime.

The Coalition has undertaken record funding commitments to fight transnational crime and protect our borders. It has also sent the clearest signals that criminal activity such as drug trafficking will not be tolerated in Australia.

Largely due to the dedication and professionalism of its officers, the AFP has made significant progress in improving its operational performance and, in turn, making the Australian community safer from crime.

The AFP now ranks second in the world for the amount of drugs seized per capita, and through the National Illicit Drug Strategy, has redoubled its efforts to become number one in the world.

12 A Safer More Secure Australia

The Commonwealth’s tough criminal penalties of up to life imprisonment are ensuring that offenders don’t get off, but serve lengthy non-parole periods in prison.

Since coming to office in 1996, the Coalition Government has allocated $315 million in new funding for the AFP. This compares with the poor record of the previous Labor government which provided only $13 million additional funding to the AFP in its last four years in office. The most recent budget allocates a further $110.5 million new funding for the next four years to strengthen the AFP's ability to fight transnational crime.

• Under the Coalition’s Tough on Drugs plan, an additional $98 million over four years was allocated to help the AFP achieve record drug seizures at the Australian border and in source and transit countries overseas. Measures include:

• $56 million to employ additional investigators, analysts and support staff to create 10 ‘Avian’ strike teams targeting high-level drug traffickers;

• $26 million for the Law Enforcement Cooperation Program and the Overseas liaison network of 42 AFP officers in 24 countries around the world to increase policing links with other countries;

• $1 million for the National heroin signature program to enable the sources of heroin to be identified and tracked nationally and internationally;

• $4 million to improve the witness protection procedures and information handling;

• $4 million to increase the AFP’s telephone interception capacity; and

• $1 million for the establishment of an AFP resident officer in Thursday Island to assist in securing Australia’s northern border.

• Under the Tough on Drugs strategy, the National Crime Authority and AUSTRAC, Australia’s anti-money laundering agency, were allocated $41 million including:

• $22 million for ongoing investigations into South East Asian crime gangs;

• $1 million to investigate money laundering activities related to the drug trade;

• $7 million to enhance the NCA’s telephone interception capacity; and

• $1.7 million for analytical support staff and the development of an automated money laundering system that identifies financial flows relating to the trafficking of illicit drugs.

Justice and Customs 13

In addition to the initial $516 million of Tough on Drugs funding, substantial additional funding has been allocated by the Howard Government to supply reduction and other initiatives to fight transnational crime. These include:

• $62 million to ensure that the original programs established under the Tough on Drugs Strategy are ongoing beyond 2002/03;

• $9.5 million to strengthen the Law Enforcement Cooperation program and create additional AFP liaison positions in Melanesia; and

• $17.5 million to disrupt people smuggling activities, including:

• $10 million to establish a joint people smuggling strike team between immigration officials and the AFP;

• $2 million to establish a further liaison officer in Jakarta;

• $5.5 million to further strengthen the Law Enforcement Cooperation Program with overseas police forces; and

• $3.1 million for an ex-gratia payment to 174 AFP officers who served in the first three contingents as peacekeepers in East Timor.

Increased resources to the AFP, together with tough new laws (including penalties for people smugglers of up to 20 years imprisonment and fines of up to $220,000 and tough minimum penalties applying), have resulted in considerable successes in restricting people smuggling activities where they originate. Since 1999, AFP cooperation with overseas law enforcement authorities has contributed to stopping the attempt of more than 3,000 people to travel to Australia illegally.

Tough on Crime - Strengthening laws to combat crime

The Coalition believes that while increased funding is critical in the fight against drugs, Federal law enforcement agencies must be provided with the necessary backing to equip them with the necessary powers to catch the organised criminals who traffic in drugs, guns and illegal entrants.

The Coalition has undertaken a number of legislative initiatives that it considers will be crucial to the future fight against transnational crime including:

• The Measures to Combat Serious and Organised Crime Act 2001 introduced this year by the Coalition will allow the AFP, for the first time, to conduct strategic undercover operations into a range of crimes that are engaged in by the ‘Mr Bigs’ of crime syndicates who rarely trade in illicit drugs themselves.

14 A Safer More Secure Australia

• The National Crime Authority Legislation Amendment Act 2001 increases the powers of the NCA in their hearings into organised criminal activity and increases the penalties for non-compliance with NCA hearings from 6 months or $1,000 fines to 5 years and $20,000 fines.

• The Cybercrime Act 2001 establishes a range of offences covering hacking, denial of service attacks spreading computer viruses and website vandalism. Computer technology can be used by both criminal syndicates and terrorist organisations and this legislation also contains investigative powers that will allow police to move computer equipment and disks offsite to undertake expert searches, to search hard drives stored at multiple locations and compel a computer owner to assist police with their enquiries. Previously, if a criminal or terrorist used a computer to commit a crime, police did not have the power to compel suspects to assist in the investigation of complex computer systems protected by security or sophisticated encryption systems.

Other Howard Government legislative initiatives include:

• Modernised and streamlined customs services for importers and exporters, as well as enhancing customs ability to identify and assess high risk cargo such as illicit drugs.

• Abolished the drunk’s defence which allowed intoxication to be used as mitigation in some federal crimes.

• Created new offences prohibit sexual slavery and servitude.

• Enhanced police telecommunication interception powers to prevent criminals and terrorists form concealing their activities with modern technology.

• Cracked down on people smugglers claiming to be juveniles, buy passing new laws enabling x-ray to be used to accurately determine the age of an offender.

The Commonwealth has also taken a leading role through national forums such as the Standing Committee of Attorneys General and the Australian Police Ministers’ Council to develop modern and consistent national criminal laws that ensure criminals cannot hide behind State borders.

CrimTrac - Catching the Guilty and Protecting the Innocent

Delivering on its 1998 election commitment, the Howard Government has invested $50 million to establish CrimTrac, to provide all Australian police forces with faster, more coordinated information about criminal activity.

Justice and Customs 15

CrimTrac has been established with the full support of all States and Territories.

On 1 July 2000 the CrimTrac agency was established to manage a number of national police information systems including the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System, the National DNA Criminal Investigation Database, National Names Index, National Vehicle of Interest System and the National Firearms Licensing and Registration System.

Work is also well underway on the development of a national child sex offender’s register to be included in CrimTrac’s police information databases.

By taking advantage of state of the art technology, CrimTrac is enabling Australian police services to catch more criminals more quickly. Significantly, CrimTrac will give police officers in regional and rural areas for the first time, the same access to cutting edge investigation capabilities as police in major metropolitan centres.

The new systems are dramatically changing the way police go about their work, assisting them to solve more crimes, more quickly than ever before.

Importantly, the new technology will also assist to clear those wrongfully suspected of a crime.

In particular the new DNA database enables DNA profiles taken from crime scenes, suspects, known criminals, missing persons and unidentified bodies to be matched for the first time on a national basis by police.

DNA profiling is considered to be the single most important advance in police investigation techniques since the development of fingerprinting in the late nineteenth century.

National Crime Prevention Program

As well as resourcing our law enforcement agencies to fight crime, the Howard Government has taken a leading role in the coordination of crime prevention projects at the national, state and local level that target the causes of crime.

$21.4 million over four years has been invested by the Commonwealth Government in a range of early intervention and crime prevention initiatives, particularly at a local community level. These include:

• Domestic violence prevention;

• Reducing repeat residential burglaries;

• Preventing violence in indigenous communities;

16 A Safer More Secure Australia

• Preventing sexual assaults among young adults;

• Managing young people’s use of public space;

• Breaking the cycle of crime and violence in families of prisoners;

• Diversionary schemes for youth at risk;

• Educating older Australian’s on how to avoid becoming a victim of crime;

• Sponsoring youth festivals with a positive drug free message; and

• Training small business on crime prevention techniques.

Justice and Customs 17

Labor’s Record

Funding Federal Law Enforcement

During its time in office Labor ignored the funding needs of our Federal law enforcement agencies and Australia became a soft target for transnational criminal syndicates.

In its last 4 years in Government the Coalition has provided $315 million in additional new funding to the AFP. By comparison, in the last 4 years of the previous Labor government, it provided only $13 million in new funding to the AFP who are the front line in Australia fight against illicit drugs and people smuggling.

During the time that Labor under-funded the AFP, the flow of drugs into Australia reached record levels. Labor had no effective supply reduction strategy to prevent drugs entering Australia and being distributed by dealers, or providing funding to health and education programs to deal with the scourge of drugs.

After years of neglect and underfunding, Labor has again demonstrated it does not understand the needs of modern law enforcement. Instead of providing more operational assistance they are threatening to shackle the police with more bureaucracy, administration and more reviews.

Kim Beazley proposes spending $78 million on an ‘office of community safety’, ‘community safety zones’, ‘community safety liaison officers’, ‘community safety reviews’ and ‘community drug action programs’. In addition, Kim Beazley promises an unnecessary white paper review of law enforcement coordination and another bureaucratic oversight body for all federal agencies. That’s two more reviews, a coordination centre and an oversight committee we can add to the already impressive number of reviews and committees the Labor Party proposes to hamstring police in their fight against organised crime.

Besides wasting millions on new layers of bureaucracy, Labor would divert the focus of highly trained AFP officers away from border protection and the fight against transnational crime where they do the most good for the community.

Kim Beazley’s plan to shift the AFP’s highly successful focus away from mobile, intelligence driven policing designed to secure our borders against illicit drugs would be a disastrous and retrograde step backwards which would inevitably result in less illicit drugs being stopped at the border and more drugs on our streets.

18 A Safer More Secure Australia

Labor Support for Injecting Rooms

Labor has not learned from their previous mistakes. While the Howard Government is fighting to keep drugs out of Australia and off our streets through the $516 million Tough on Drugs Strategy, Labor’s 10 Point Plan to Tackle Australia’s Drug Problem supports heroin injecting rooms and the importation of heroin for heroin prescription trials. The importation of heroin for a trial may not only contravene Australia’s international treaty obligations but also send a message that Australian society condones heroin use.

Heroin trials are not a solution to the problem of addiction. The World Health Organisation recently concluded that the Swiss Heroin Trial was an expensive failure and that there was, ‘no convincing evidence that heroin prescription generally leads to better outcomes than methadone treatment.

Labor’s Coastguard Proposal

Labor’s Coastguard and associated policy proposals would have a disastrous operational impact on the AFP by seriously fragmenting the organisation. This would have serious command and operational consequences which would inevitably impact on their effectiveness. Under Labor’s proposals, Federal Officers would be split between the new Community Policing Zones, Federal Protective Service and Coastguard. The remainder staying with a much reduced and less flexible organisation.