Senate Estimates (Budget Supplementary) hearing – Australian Parliament House

​​​​​​​17 October 2016

Michael Outram APM
Acting Commissioner, Australian Border Force

Opening statement to Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee

E&OE

Thank you, Chair and Senators.

I am acting Australian Border Force Commissioner while Roman Quaedvlieg is on leave.

In 2015–16, the ABF played a key role in facilitating the movement of legitimate trade and travellers across our border. We processed more than 40 million international air and sea travellers, and 34 million imported air cargo consignments, and completed three million imported sea cargo reports. We also collected more than $17 billion in revenue. Year on year, across the board, these volumes are increasing. To manage them, we are embracing the latest technology and implementing new initiatives.

We have completed the roll–out of 86 Departures SmartGates across Australia’s major international airports, including at Canberra—Australia’s newest international gateway. As of October, more than 12.1 million travellers have self–processed through the gates.

On 1 July, we opened the Australian Trusted Trader programme and will soon have accredited over 340 Australian businesses. By 2020, the programme is expected to grow to more than 1000 Trusted Traders.

In achieving these outcomes, we are supported through the consistent hard work of Australian Border Force officers—those who transitioned from the previous Customs Service and Immigration Department, and those who have joined us since the stand–up of the ABF. All are committed professionals who embody Australian values and are dedicated and diligent in the conduct of their duties, which quite often, they undertake in tough conditions and difficult circumstances.

As well as the effort we put into facilitating the vast movement of people and goods across our border, our officers play a crucial role in securing Australia’s border from a variety of risks and threats. These include, but are not limited to: the movement of foreign fighters; organised crime; people smuggling and human trafficking; criminal exploitation of our visa programme; illegal foreign fishing; and serious revenue evasion. The ABF continues to develop and implement a risk–based and intelligence–informed approach to enforcement and compliance work to manage these risks and threats.

This is evidenced through the success of Taskforce Cadena, which is focussed on disrupting organised visa fraud and the exploitation of foreign workers in Australia. We continue to value the close collaboration with our partner agencies in the Taskforce.

Since it began operations in October 2015, the Tobacco Strike Team has achieved significant success in disrupting organised criminal groups, and will be bolstered with the Government providing $7.7 million over two years.

We have maintained the integrity of Australia’s maritime border, and through the efforts of Maritime Border Command, Illegal fishing in the Southern Ocean is at its lowest level since 1995.

With regards to Australia’s immigration detention facilities, over the last 12 months we have made them safer and more secure, including through our ongoing Operation Safe Centres, a new risk–based placement model, and training for our staff. The numbers of people in detention continue to decrease—1454 as at 30 September 2016, compared with 9256 as at 30 June 2013. The Government has announced the closure of 17 detention centres.

Importantly, the ABF continues to look to the future. We are focused on building the expertise and capability of our workforce to further consolidate our border protection role within the law enforcement community, and to achieve this, we are progressing key areas of focus as set out in our strategic plans.

Thank you.