Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee [Part 2], , 2:43:53 to 2:49:04
Officials address the status of interim control orders for specific individuals and respond to concerns regarding AFP staffing levels, budget management, and the policing of social cohesion.
Topics: National security, Public service staffing, Government spending, Social cohesion
Speakers: Katherine Van Gurp, Krissy Barrett, Speaker 21, Speaker 24, Speaker 25, Speaker 1
>> Thank you very much, Chair. And I'm going to be very direct and brief. So, um in relation to Mr. L. Matari, [clears throat] which was transferred um from the attorney general's department to home affairs and the AFP. Are you able to let the committee know um if there is any application um for his continuing
>> Thank you, Senator. I'll pass to Deputy Commissioner Sir for that answer.
>> Thank you, Senator. Um the AFP uh considers interim control orders. I can advise that we do have a interim control order that has been applied to the federal court and that is our responsibility in regards to um engaging and mitigating the threat that relates to um the uh release of Mr. Elmatari.
>> Okay. Is it fair to say will he be released on the 1st of November?
>> Uh that is the end of his head sentence.
So you haven't um applied for any continuing detention of him?
>> We don't apply for continuing detention orders in the AFP. That is a matter for Department of Home Affairs. Um but we do apply for interim control orders.
>> Has the Department of Home Affairs instructed you that they will be doing that? Sorry. Because Attorney General's Department and Home Affairs have all said to speak to the AFP.
>> Yep. and that's that's appropriate um because we have a treatment measure coming in um we do have the interim control order through the federal court system
>> but that's it there's been no instruction for a continuing detention
>> that's correct
>> thank you
>> thank you Senator Roberts
>> thank you thank you for tonight >> my office has been contacted by AFP members who say that musters were held in AFP offices recently indicating that the AFP is in a dire financial position and that voluntary redundancies are being considered it. I've heard recently that undercover program had only a 15% staffing footprint and the counterterrorism program had vacancies nearly 30%. Are these true?
>> Thank you, Senator. I'll pass to our chief operating operating officer to give you a detailed response to that. But I would just say as part of our uh budget management for this current financial year, we are going through a realignment, organizational realignment to ensure that we have resources in the positions where we are budgeted for and in alignment with government priorities. But I will ask the coup to elaborate further on that. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Commissioner. Um, Senator, I can confirm the the specific statements you said are not correct. Um, the AFP does continue to receive additional funding. We do continue to grow year onear. Um, we received an additional 316.6 million in the 2627 budget. Um, but as the um commissioner flagged, we we are also running a business and we are subject to increasing costs in terms of a range of business costs. So internally in the AFP, despite our significant growth and investment in the AFP, we are doing a bit of a realignment to make sure the resources we have are focused on the priorities as defined by government and our agency and to make sure we can deliver against those. Um we've applied a tiered approach to our budget implementation which means um we're considering in terms of our legislative responsibilities, risk, appetite, etc. So the the m majority of reductions um in terms of where we're areas um not our frontline staff. Um overall our FTE continues to grow though we we're not reducing FTE and certainly um you mentioned before about redundancies. I confirmed that at this stage redundancies are not being considered at all by the AFP. We're currently in a realignment um process in
>> Senator Antic's got one very quick final question before we wrap up. Just in
relation to your announcement about the National Security Investigations Team Commissioner, um what I want to understand is what sort of um oversight, accountability, transparency are you able to put on that to ensure that um this doesn't become um searching out and
seeking out and distinguishing between what you're describing as uh social cohesion, antisocial cohesion behaviors. What what's AFP going to do to make sure those boundaries aren't crossed?
>> Thank you, Senator. Um, and I have uh publicly stated a number of times in the last week that we are not here to police free speech. We are not here to intervene in uh political discourse. We are here to enforce the law. So, in terms of your question about what oversight exists, it's pretty straightforward for us. We investigate. If there are offenses that have been committed, then we will charge and we will prosecute in conjunction with the CDP. So for us, our guid our guiding light is always we investigate uh alleged offenses. If we have the evidence that an an offense has been committed, then we will we will charge arrest and charge if appropriate.