Outgoing ABF boss: ‘It’s time for a US-style national coast guard’
The outgoing head of the Australian Border Force has spoken about what the country needs to win the fight against drug cartels and people smugglers.
NSW
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Australia should consider setting up a national coast guard similar to the US to help in the fight against drug cartels and people smugglers, according to the outgoing head of the Australian Border Force.
For the past two decades, the ABF has worked with the Australian Defence Force using its planes and ships to patrol our borders.
“The model we have had for the last 20 years has served us really well,” Mr Outram said.
“The Maritime Border Command is a joint task force in the Australian Defence Force and has a Rear Admiral from the Royal Australian Navy as the commander because we use a combination of ABF vessels and aeroplanes with those from the ADF.”
However, Mr Outram said the growth of international crime gangs targeting Australia and our changing defence needs in the region meant the federal government should consider setting up a separate “coast guard” command to patrol our borders.
“I think as a country it is quite legitimate to ask if Australia would benefit from having a coast guard model,” he said.
“You look at the next 20 years and what the navy’s priorities will be and ask, ‘do you want the navy to be doing civil maritime security for the next 20 years?’ – probably not.
“Over the next few years a legitimate question is we have 10.2 million sq km of exclusive economic zones, that means we have exclusive rights to resources. You look at what’s happening around the world and within our region – not only in terms of organised crime, but the grey-zone tactics being adopted by other countries – and perhaps it’s time to ask, how do we free up Defence to do more of the work that they need to be doing and will the current model of the maritime border force be effective over the next 20 years?”
Mr Outram, Commissioner of the ABF for the past seven years, also warned of the growing threat of a killer new drug coming into Australia.
“We may have skirted the fentanyl epidemic which is killing thousands of people almost daily in parts of America and Canada, but we are seeing a drug called nitazene emerging,” he said.
“Last year we had a 350 per cent increase in nitazenes detected at the border.
“The quantities are not huge but it is a similar synthetic opioid like fentanyl and we have to continue to keep an eye on this with the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and other law enforcement agencies.”
Mr Outram also said the movement towards decriminalisation of some drugs needed to be carefully debated at a national level.
“The decriminalisation of narcotics is up to the states and territories … but if there is no conversation nationally about that approach and what we are doing at the border as a country, I don’t think we are doing very well,” he said.
“I’ve looked at other countries and think it’s too early in Australia to say if it’s a success or failure, but if you look in the US and Canada and parts of Europe where they have decriminalised, they have either reversed it or are looking to reverse it.”
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