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Nigel Brew
Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade
Although national security remains, not unexpectedly, a major feature
of the Budget and is addressed with several new initiatives, it has received
less emphasis this year than in previous years. However, the 2007–08
Budget also sees a number of new operational initiatives targeting serious
and organised crime. These initiatives include new funding to, amongst
other things, combat illicit drugs, increase efforts against people smuggling,
and enhance the management of criminal intelligence, as well as funding
for the continuation of existing programmes, such as those targeting money
laundering and fraud.
National security
In January 2007, the Attorney-General declared
that Australia had spent ‘more than $8 billion on security-related measures
since 2001’.[1] In the 2007–08
Budget, the Government is providing an additional $702 million over four
years to strengthen Australia’s national security—approximately half of
last year’s expenditure on national security.[2] The Government also claims that in total it has now committed
an additional $10.4 billion to national security over the ten years to
2010–11.[3] However, according to the Australian
Homeland Security Research Centre, expenditure on national security (excluding
defence) in the 2007–08 Budget amounts to just $665 million over four
years and a total of some $7.6 billion over the ten years to 2010–11.[4]
According to Government figures, national security funding includes the
provision of $73.6 million over four years to a range of agencies
for the implementation of a national ‘e-security’ agenda to protect and
secure Australia’s online environment. It also includes a total of $57.2
million over four years to further enhance aviation security, one of the
main features of which is the extension of checked baggage screening to
26 regional airports that are serviced by passenger jet aircraft, at a
cost of $15.4 million. This funding will provide explosive detection equipment
to all 26 airports and X-ray screening to 18 airports. The lack of checked
baggage screening at regional airports has long been one of the Opposition’s
main criticisms of the Government’s existing aviation security programme.[5]
Other specific national security funding initiatives include:
- $151.4 million over four years to develop purpose-built police accommodation
at Australia’s eleven Counter-Terrorism First Response airports to provide
space for office, operational and training facilities and cater for
the permanent posting of police and security personnel under the Unified
Policing Model
- $14.5 million over four years to a number of agencies for the development
of the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Security
Strategy, part of a package of counter-terrorism measures adopted by
the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) on 13 April 2007
- $18.6 million over four years for Department of Transport and Regional
Services (DOTARS) (part of the $57.2 million aviation security package)
to introduce an accreditation scheme for operators of land transportation
(eg: trucking companies) that carry air cargo. This new scheme will
complement the existing Regulated Air Cargo Agent scheme that applies
to freight forwarders and cargo terminal operators
- $5 million over four years for DOTARS (part of the $57.2 million aviation
security package) to fund the posting of two senior transport security
officers to the US where they will work closely with US aviation security
authorities and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
- $31.7 million over four years for the Australian Customs Service (Customs)
to lease a charter vessel to replace the Australian Customs Vessel currently
on station at Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve and obtain two high-speed
response craft to strengthen Customs surveillance and environmental
management of the area
- $79.5 million over four years for Customs to develop, implement and
operate the new Australian Maritime Identification System (AMIS), the
aim of which will be to consolidate maritime data currently collected
by several different agencies and enable the Border Protection Command
to detect and respond to all vessels entering or operating in Australia’s
maritime region
- $23.1 million for Customs to replace the current Passenger Analysis
Clearance Evaluation (PACE) system to enhance the ability of Customs
to identify international travellers of interest to various agencies,
and improve the sharing of information between such agencies
- $65.2 million over five years to upgrade the Australian Federal Police’s
(AFP) operations and intelligence IT systems
- $4.7 million over four years to create a new AFP team which will manage
human sources of intelligence in an effort to increase the collection
overseas of intelligence on people smuggling. A further $9 million
over four years has also been provided to the Australian Secret Intelligence
Service (ASIS) to enhance its collection of intelligence on people smuggling;
and
- $1 million over four years to conduct police background checks for
all staff employed under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984
and to provide security awareness training for those employees with
a Top Secret clearance with the aim of improving security in Parliament
House.
There is also funding to continue or expand existing programmes, such
as the continued operation of the national crisis management Watch Office
($5.5m over four years); the continued operation of the National Security
Hotline ($19m over four years); a reinvigorated national security awareness
campaign ($20m over two years); an expansion of the counter-terrorism
exercise programme ($24.6m over four years); the completion of implementing
arrangements under the Anti-Terrorism Act (No. 2) 2005 ($35.7m
over four years); the enhancement of aviation security audit and compliance
($21m over four years); the continuation of the secure communications
network, Australian Secure Network ($21.2m over four years); and an expansion
of the strategy to combat people trafficking ($26.3m over four years).
Agency funding
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s (ASIO) total budget
for 2007–08 is $446.984 million (comprising $149.616m in equity injections
and $297.368m in departmental appropriations and other revenue). This
represents a total increase of just over $100 million from last year.
ASIO receives $78.8 million over four years to complete refurbishments
to ASIO state offices.
Australian Secret Intelligence Service
The budget of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service has increased
from a total of $168.234 million in 2006–07 to a total of $179.883 million
in 2007–08 (comprising $166.134m in departmental income and other revenue
of $13.749m). This is an increase of $11.6 million.
Australian Federal Police
The Australian Federal Police’s total budget for 2007–08 is $1261.078
million (comprising $90.066m in equity injections and $1171.012m in departmental
income). This compares to a total last year of $1140.305 million, which
represents an increase of some $121 million.
Australian Customs Service
The total budget of the Australian Customs Service for 2007–08 is $1326.992
million (comprising $36.609m in equity injections and $1290.383m in departmental
income). This represents an increase from last year of just over $75
million (up from $1251.621m).
Serious and organised crime
There are a number of significant initiatives to receive funding in this
year’s Budget which aim to address some growing trends in serious and
organised crime. Central to these is the Government’s Combating illicit
drugs initiative, under which the AFP, Customs and the Australian
Crime Commission share in some $150 million designed to address the problem
of amphetamine-type stimulants, and which the Prime Minister claims will
strengthen the Government’s ‘zero tolerance approach to illicit drugs’.
A breakdown
of this funding was provided by the Prime Minister in his press release
of 22 April 2007, as follows:
Table 1—summary of measures to further combat illicit drug use
| Measure |
Agency |
Funding
to 2010–11
($ million) |
| Strengthening
the non-government organisation treatment grants program (designed
to increase rehabilitation services) |
--- |
79.5 |
| Amphetamine-Type
Stimulants grants program |
--- |
22.9 |
| Strengthening
drug prevention education (will supplement existing funding for
the national drugs campaign, including the production of education
booklets for all households) |
--- |
9.2 |
| Response to
the production and distribution of amphetamines and other synthetic
drugs |
Australian
Crime Commission |
20 |
| Enhanced technical
capacity |
ACC and AFP |
4.3 |
| Amphetamine-Type
Stimulants enhanced investigative capacity (will fund the creation
of a dedicated investigation team based in Sydney) |
Australian
Federal Police |
5.9 |
| Expansion
of the international liaison officer network (will fund the deployment
of one AFP officer to Laos and additional staff for
the AFP’s China post) |
Australian
Federal Police |
4.5 |
| Expansion
of reference spectral libraries, upgrade of spectroscopic detection
fleet, and installation of portable fumehoods at container examination
facilities (to be used when sampling commercial-sized chemical
shipments) |
Australian
Customs Service |
1.3 |
| Drug Use Monitoring
in Australia (expansion to Darwin and Melbourne
of a programme which analyses urine samples and responses to questionnaires
from police detainees) |
Australian
Institute of Criminology |
1.9 |
| TOTAL |
|
149.5 |
(Table based on the attachment
to the Prime Minister’s press release
on the issue of 22 April 2007)
Other measures to combat illicit drugs which are funded from within the
existing resourcing of the Australian Customs Service include $0.8 million
over four years to provide additional training to border security personnel
in the detection and analysis of precursor chemicals used in the manufacture
of illicit drugs, and $0.7 million over four years to improve drug detection
and prevention in the Oceania region.
Funding for the continuation of existing programmes includes $5.2 million
over four years for the AFP to continue with the connection of AFP overseas
posts to the AFP’s national computer system; $8.8 million over four years
for the AFP to continue joint efforts with overseas law enforcement agencies
in disrupting transnational criminal threats and improving the sharing
of criminal intelligence; $6 million over four years for the AFP to continue
joint efforts with overseas agencies to disrupt the supply of illicit
drugs to Australia; and $30.8 million over four years for the Australian
Crime Commission to continue targeting money laundering and fraud against
the Commonwealth.
Other significant new initiatives include some $13 million for the Australian
Crime Commission to enhance the management and sharing of criminal intelligence
($4.3m over four years), and to investigate the involvement of organised
crime in the private security industry ($8.7m over two years).
Conclusion
With the exception perhaps of the funding of the new ‘e-security’ agenda
and the screening of checked baggage at regional airports, the bulk of
this year’s national security budget is largely allocated to structural
and administrative enhancements, or enables the continuation of existing
programmes. By comparison, the funding of measures to combat growing
trends in serious and organised crime is significant. Law enforcement
agencies (rather than public service departments) appear to benefit the
most, suggesting that the funding is specifically designed to boost operational
capability.
Endnotes
[1]. The Hon. Philip Ruddock,
MP, Attorney-General, Protecting Australia against terrorism,
media release 001/2007, 8 January 2007.
[2]. Budget Measures 2007–08,
Budget Paper No.2, p. 65.
(Budget Paper No. 2 for the 2006–07 Budget stated (on p. 91)
that the Government would ‘provide an additional $1.5 billion over the
five years from 2005–06’ to address Australia’s national security).
[3]. ibid.
[4]. A. Yates, National Security
Expenditure in the 2007–08 Australian Government Budget, Australian
Homeland Security Research Centre, on behalf of Engineers Australia’s
Safeguarding Australia programme, 9 May 2007 (10 May 2007).
[5]. See, for example: J.
Masanauskas & M. Dunn, ‘Baggage
terror fears’, Herald Sun, 19 September 2006; L. McIlveen,
‘Smaller
airports targeted’, Daily Telegraph, 4 September 2006, (15
May 2007).
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