Home Affairs Portfolio Illicit Drug Action Plan
Download a copy of the
Home Affairs Illicit Drug Action Plan.
Introduction
Illicit drugs are the life-blood of organised crime groups targeting Australia and continue to have a devastating impact across communities, particularly in regional, rural and remote areas. Australians are high consumers of illicit drugs, consuming in excess of 15 tonnes each year, worth more than $9.3 billion in street prices. This provides a highly lucrative market for organised criminal networks who seek to profit by importing illicit drugs that harm Australians and destroy communities.
Since 2006, drug-induced deaths in Australia have increased1. In 2017 alone it is estimated there were 1,795 drug-induced deaths in Australia2. Illicit drugs destroy Australian communities. Drug-fuelled crime disrupts countless lives – harming users, their families and friends, first responders (police, doctors, nurses and paramedics), and drives street-level, volume crime.
This Home Affairs Illicit Drugs Action Plan (the Action Plan) outlines the Home Affairs Portfolio's current priorities and actions to combat illicit drugs. It demonstrates how the Portfolio works collaboratively to combat the illicit drug threat and draws upon lessons learned from Australia’s past and current responses to drive action for the future. The Action Plan covers new and existing initiatives and is being implemented by the Department of Home Affairs and its relevant portfolio agencies:
- Australian Border Force (ABF)
- Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC)
- Australian Federal Police (AFP)
- Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), and
- Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC)
Each agency has an important role in targeting the production, importation and distribution of drugs into and across Australia. This Action Plan focuses on the threat from methylamphetamine – in particular, its crystalline form 'ice', which constituted 57 per cent of the Australian methylamphetamine market in 20163.
A strategy-driven response
The Home Affairs Portfolio is guided by three key Government strategies when delivering policy and operational responses to keep Australians safe from illicit drugs.
National Strategy to Fight Transnational, Serious and Organised Crime (TSOC)
The
National Strategy to Fight Transnational, Serious and Organised Crime (the National Strategy) provides a framework to guide national efforts to prevent and disrupt TSOC in all its forms, including the production and trafficking of illicit drugs. It provides that in order to combat the threat of TSOC, our efforts need to be:
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Integrated - Use all available tools to disrupt criminal business models
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United - Build strong partnerships to combat transnational, serious and organised crime together
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Capable - Strengthen our national capability, ensuring effective use of people, systems and intelligence
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Evolving - Be agile and ahead, continuously improving and demonstrating success
National Drug Strategy 2017-2026 (NDS)
Led by the Department of Health, the NDS provides a national framework that identifies priorities, guides action by governments in partnership with service providers and the community, and outlines a national commitment to harm minimisation by reducing demand, supply and harm. The NDS takes a balanced approach to drugs policy by recognising the need for both law enforcement and evidence-based prevention and treatment. The Home Affairs Portfolio focuses on supply reduction activities to support the NDS, such as limiting the diversion of precursor chemicals into the illicit drug market, harnessing intelligence (such as wastewater analysis and detection capabilities at the border) to identify high-risk areas and inform operational activities, and international capacity-building to strengthen regional responses to illicit drug production and trafficking.
National Ice Action Strategy (NIAS)
Implemented in 2015, the NIAS is led by the Department of Health and focuses on initiatives to combat ice across all three pillars of the NDS. The Home Affairs Portfolio's role is to address those initiatives focused on reducing supply and enhancing data and research. Since the launch of the NIAS, significant progress has been made against these supply-focused initiatives.
Key supply reduction initiatives under the NIAS
| Initiatives | Status |
|---|
| Strengthen international cooperation through developing a new international supply disruption strategy | Complete |
| Run a national ‘Dob in a Dealer’ campaign to encourage the public to report information on drug manufacture and distribution in the community | Complete |
| Develop a pilot infrastructure platform to inform the design and development of a National Criminal Intelligence System (NCIS) | Complete |
| Achieve greater national consistency of controls on precursor chemicals and equipment used to manufacture ice | Ongoing |
| Work through existing structures to disrupt the production and supply of ice in regional and remote areas | Ongoing |
| Strengthen the eligibility criteria of the Aviation Security Identification Card and Maritime Security Identification Card schemes to target serious and organised crime | In progress |
| Increase the quality and quantity of drug use data in Australia by continuing the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program and wastewater testing | Ongoing |
| Develop a national cooperative scheme to target the unexplained wealth of people involved in serious and organised crime | In progress |
Increased from approximately 6 drug-induced deaths per 100,000 people in 2006, to 9.8 deaths per 100,000 in 2017. Drug-induced deaths are those directly attributable to use of illicit drugs, some prescription medicines and some medicines available over-the-counter. Deaths attributed to alcohol or tobacco use are excluded. From Chrzanowska, A., Dobbins, T., Degenhardt, L. & Peacock, A. (2019).
Trends in drug-induced deaths in Australia, 1997-2017. Drug Trends Bulletin Series. Sydney: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney.
https://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/resource/trends-drug-induced-deaths-australia-1997-2017
Ibid.
National Drug Strategy Household Survey, 2016. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, p68.
