Transcript 

21 May 2008
 
Station: Canberra Conference Unit 
Program: Doorstop Interview
Time: 10:45 AM

Item: Doorstop conference with Minister for Home Affairs, Bob Debus and Mick Keelty, AFP Commissioner on various topics.

SCOTT KELLEHER: Commissioner Kelty and Minister Debus would like to say a few words about the future accommodations for the AFP. The minister will say a few words and invite the commissioner to say a few words in response and then we'll let you have about 10 minutes of questioning.

Please be aware that both the minister and the commissioner do have an appointment that they have to make, so thanks very much.

BOB DEBUS: Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to officially announce the selection of the Edmund Barton Building as the new headquarters for the AFP. The AFP has indeed experienced very rapid growth in recent years and the new building is going to consolidate six existing sites and provide office space for around about 2,200 employees of the Australian Federal Police. It's also close to other agencies of relevance like the Attorney-General's Department and other national security departments.

The refurbishment is to begin at once and the - well at least as soon as the lease is finalised and it's going to have a four and a half star Australian business greenhouse rating[sic]. I expect that the building will be occupied next year. The fitout is going to he funded by the AFP through accumulated reserves that were set aside for that purpose and that's why you haven't seen any reference to this building in the budget.

A cost for the fitout is not yet established with certainty because we are seeking tenders that have to go through some commercial negotiations. Tenders will be sought so that, as I say, no cost can be discussed at this stage. But I am very pleased indeed to be able to announce the selection of the Edmund Barton Building as the new headquarters of the AFP, because it has been very important that we could consolidate all of the staff in one place, instead of having them distributed around Canberra at six sites as they are at the moment. And I might ask the Commissioner to say a few things before we answer questions.

MICK KEELTY: Thank you Minister. Obviously, for the organisation, this is a significant milestone for us. We have been trying to negotiate and find appropriate accommodation for the AFP in Canberra during the past five years that we've undertaken so much growth. Interestingly, the statistics just quoted by the Minister of 2,200 staff being accommodated here.

In 2001, when I became commissioner, we had only a few more staff than that in our total staffing of the AFP and if you add in ACT policing, this building will accommodate more than what we ever had in the AFP at that point in time. So, for us it's a significant move forward and, you know, we look forward to moving into the new accommodation. We hope that it will be ready by the end of next year or even earlier than that and it now gives us something to look forward to in terms of a permanent home for the AFP here in Canberra.

Part of the parliamentary triangle, and as the Minister said, it will be in close proximity to other stakeholder agencies with whom we have quite a deal of interaction. So, thank you. Questions.

QUESTION: Commissioner, how much have you spent on rent for a vacant building and the refurb of ANZAC Park West?

MICK KEELTY: Nineteen point four million dollars. That is money that commonwealth would have had to have paid anyway. So, there is no net loss to the commonwealth on that. The reality is, ANZAC Park West had 15,000 square metres. This building here has 45,000 square metres. And that's an indication of how quickly we outgrew the ANZAC Park West option. And I should point out that in 2001, I acquired 200 hectares of land at Majura where the AFP is currently housed with the International Deployment Group.

At the very same time, I tried to acquire ANZAC Park West and it's been a very drawn out and long process and we quickly outgrew that and it meant that we would have to have ANZAC Park West and another building. And the problem with having another building, it meant that we weren't reaching the first principle of trying to house the organisation in one building.

So, the money that has been spent is money that we had set aside as the Minister said. We are keen to ensure that this doesn't have any negative effect on the budget, because we have been accumulating funds over the years in anticipation of moving into a new headquarters.

QUESTION: Minister, can you tell me, where will people park around here?

MICK KEELTY: Well there's parking underneath. I don't know if you've seen the building, but there's parking underneath and obviously there's other parking in the vicinity.

QUESTION: At what point did you realise that ANZAC Park West was never going to meet your requirements?

MICK KEELTY: Well it was early in the negotiations, but of course then we were looking at ANZAC Park East and we just couldn't settle on an appropriate arrangement with ANZAC Park East which would have had to be have been joined up somehow, whether it be by an underground tunnel or by some other means. And in the end, it was too small. So, both buildings combined were too small. And largely that was through the enormous growth in the AFP, particularly over the last two years.

QUESTION: Are these the - the ANZAC Park buildings likely to be used by another government department?

MICK KEELTY: Yeah, yeah.

QUESTION: Presumably though that some of that - and this might be a question for the Minister - presumably some of the re-fit of those buildings were specific to the intelligence and high security needs of the AFP, not an ordinary department?

BOB DEBUS: Well my understanding is that it will be possible, nevertheless, for another department to use those buildings and there can be no doubt that this building will allow the AFP to operate to its optimum and we're very pleased that we've been able to make the necessary arrangements.

QUESTION: But surely there'd have to be major security [indistinct] of this particular building here. I mean I know there's no cost value disclosed at the moment, but surely there's a fair bit of work here.

BOB DEBUS: I presume so.

MICK KEELTY: Yeah, and that's part of the negotiation. Obviously, the Department of Finance and Deregulation would not have agreed to this deal being struck had we not accomplished some sort of arrangement with the owners of the building to install significant security here. Obviously we can't give you the detail of that because it's commercial-in-confidence.

QUESTION: Who does own this building?

MICK KEELTY: Stocklands. And as it happens, Stocklands owns the building that we currently occupy in the city which has made it much easier to deal with in terms of the arrangements.

QUESTION: Well, what happens to that building now in [indistinct] Street?

MICK KEELTY: You'll have to ask Stocklands.

QUESTION: Presumably you'll have to change to look of the building in some way, but you'd be hamstrung by the heritage listing of this building.

MICK KEELTY: We've actually engaged the Seidler family. Obviously, it's a Harry Seidler design building. We've looked at that in the negotiation process, so all of that's been taken into account.

QUESTION: Commissioner, can I ask a question on another issue? In the budget there was a lot of focus on international operations for the AFP. Given that it's going to take five years before the full 500 extra officers in place, do you think that's going to be dr… do you think that, first of all, do you think there's an increasing international role for the AFP and do you think that's going to be a continuing drain on your domestic capabilities?

MICK KEELTY: Not all of the - in fact, there are separate budget items for the international work of the AFP, in the South Pacific initiatives, in Afghanistan, in East Timor. So they're separate to the 500. The 500 over five years is a practical approach to what we're capable of both recruiting and training. The AFP College is full to the end of this year because we're in the process of building up the international deployment group to a force of 1000 by the end of this year. So those figures are very realistic, and you're not going to find any commissioner anywhere in the world who is going to say it was a bad decision to give us 500 more police.

QUESTION: And do you see an increasing overseas role for the AFP?

MICK KEELTY: Well, we - our engagement overseas has been a major part of the AFP's work. And might I say, a successful part of the AFP's work, you know, which has been recognised quite significantly by overseas agencies. The answer is yes, in a global world where crime recognises no borders, it's obvious that we'll need to enhance and build upon the very good relationships that we have with overseas police agencies.

QUESTION: Commissioner, can you tell us if, when and in what circumstances you'll give evidence to the Haneef inquiry?

MICK KEELTY: Yes, I'll - I'm cooperating with the inquiry. We - our submission went forward last Friday. As I've said publicly before, we welcome the inquiry, which has our total and full cooperation and we look forward to, you know, meeting with Mr Clarke in a formal sense.

QUESTION: You will personally give evidence though, to the inquiry?

MICK KEELTY: Yes.

QUESTION: Commissioner, will you insist on that being done in camera, or would you do it publicly?

MICK KEELTY: It'll be up to Mr Clarke to determine how I give anything that he might inquire of me. I have no intention to - from a personal perspective, hold anything back from Mr Clarke. If there is a reason why something can't be made public, that's a matter for Mr Clarke.

QUESTION: Will you ask him if you can give it, your evidence in camera?

MICK KEELTY: There's nothing that I know now that I can imagine I would be saying to Mr Clarke that I particularly don't want to present that to the inquiry. There may be from other agencies, but certainly not from me.

QUESTION: And has a date been set for you to give evidence, Commissioner?

MICK KEELTY: No, it hasn't. Our submission went forward by the due date last Friday and we're waiting to hear back from Mr Clarke as to when he might want to see me and other officers of the AFP.

QUESTION: And can I just check the Haneef inquiry is ongoing, is that correct at this stage?

MICK KEELTY: The investigation is, yes. It hasn't been completed yet.

QUESTION: Just getting back to this site here Commissioner, what's the rent here a year? How much do you expect to pay a year?

MICK KEELTY: Well, we haven't finally negotiated that, but obviously that will be made public because it's a figure that should be public. One of the - I guess, one of the principles behind this is it had to be attractive for us to get the approval of both the Government and certainly in the first instance for us, to the Department of Finance and Deregulation. But we're very happy, very happy with the deal.

QUESTION: [Inaudible question - background noise]

MICK KEELTY: I think when the final contracts are signed.

QUESTION: The 2000 hectares that you've acquired [indistinct], what's your plans for developing that?

MICK KEELTY: I wish it was 2000 hectares; 200 hectares. That's also part of the budget process…

BOB DEBUS: [Interrupts] I don't - 200's enough.

MICK KEELTY: [Laughs] We've already started. If you go out there, you'll see there's quite a significant building that's gone on out there. The international deployment village has been completed. The - eventually it will house some of the training and forensic capability of the AFP and IT capability of the AFP. And that's part of a $320 million program that's - was commenced last year.

END