Opening of the ACLEI Operations Facility
Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, Canberra
2 December 2009
Acknowledgements
First, I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we meet on – and pay my respects to their elders, both past and present.
Other Acknowledgements
Mr Philip Moss, Integrity Commissioner
Professor John McMillan, Commonwealth Ombudsman
Mr John Hunt-Sharman and Mr Jim Torr, from the Australian Federal Police Association
Representatives of the Australian Crime Commission, Australian Federal Police, AUSTRAC, CRIMTRAC, ASIO and the Attorney-General’s Department
ACLEI staff
Introduction
Of course, it is good to be with you this afternoon to open ACLEI’s secure Operations Facility.
It says something of the complexity of the world we live in that today’s guests are drawn from many of the elements of the Government’s response to trans-national, serious and organised crime.
I am advised that, during the design and security-accreditation phases of the Facility, ACLEI received a good deal of cooperation from many of the agencies represented here today.
As Minister for Home Affairs, I am delighted that our peak law enforcement and security agencies cooperate in these ways – in this case around the common goal of deterring corruption.
Organised crime and corruption
As many of you know, one week ago, the Attorney-General and I launched the Commonwealth Organised Crime Strategic Framework. The Framework responds to established, new and emerging security risks to the Australian society, posed by trans-national and organised crime.
Among these risks, the Framework identifies corruption as one of the facilitators of organised crime. I note that the Integrity Commissioner uses the metaphor ‘corruption handshake’ to describe this illicit relationship.
ACLEI owes its existence to the recognition by successive governments that corrupt conduct is an ever-present risk in the law enforcement environment, and that there are special challenges to its detection and investigation. ACLEI’s Operations Facility, which I am opening today, provides a base from which many of these challenges can be met.
Special funding measure
In the Government’s first Budget, that of 2008-09, we recognised the need for ACLEI to develop beyond its original staffing of nine people, and the need to provide ACLEI with some special facilities to do its job. Accordingly, the Government committed an extra $7.5m of resources over four years to ensure that ACLEI could continue to evolve, to mature and to become even more efficient.
As of 1 July this year, ACLEI now has funding for 17 staff, and in a moment you will be invited to tour the tangible results of $750, 000 worth of capital funding – ACLEI’s secure Operations Facility.
As you will see, not only does the Facility provide a comfortable workspace for ACLEI’s additional staff, it also ensures that information about investigations can be shared within the space, yet kept appropriately confidential in all other senses.
Security-rated ICT infrastructure means that ACLEI’s investigators and analysts can access – remotely and conveniently – information held in law enforcement databases.
In turn, ACLEI can also contribute intelligence from its own investigations back to law enforcement agencies. This ‘fusion capability’ is one of the cross-agency outcomes that Government expects to develop further, under the Organised Crime Strategic Framework.
Conclusion
Now, it gives me great pleasure to declare open ACLEI’s Operations Facility.
Please join with me in wishing well the Integrity Commissioner and his staff in their role of detecting, investigating and preventing corruption in law enforcement agencies.
