Globalisation putting borders in ‘perpetual crisis’, ABF chief says

The outgoing Australian Border Force chief has warned globalisation is putting the country’s borders in “perpetual crisis” in a rare public speech.

The outgoing Australian Border Force (ABF) chief says globalisation is putting the country’s borders in “perpetual crisis”.

ABF Commissioner Michael Outram has had a career spanning decades and continents.

The decorated law enforcement veteran will retire next month, handing the reins over to Gavan Reynolds, the inaugural defence intelligence head.

In a National Press Club address on Wednesday, the Commissioner made the case for a new way of thinking on border security, saying that globalisation was posing a myriad of new challenges.

He said that while “our thinking today is more optimistically about the proximity of opportunity with Asia and beyond, through the lens of economic integration, we still regard the border as being very much about upholding sovereignty.”

“In parallel with the obvious economic benefits of globalisation, over the last four or five years the international environment seems to have become increasingly less predictable for businesses and for governments,” he said.

“And this affects supply chains and borders and how we manage them, where predictability, resilience and security all frame our approach to risk.”

Outgoing Australian Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram has warned the country’s borders are in “perpetual crisis”. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Outram pointed to the cost of living crises being felt in many countries, including Australia, as an example of just how sensitive the world was to supply chain disruptions, and warned that bad actors exploit these weaknesses.

“The truth is that many of the contemporary challenges to our sovereignty ... are unlikely to diminish over the coming decades, including the displacement of people through conflict or climate change, grey zone tactics being used by states and the sophistication and reach of transnational criminal networks,” he said.

“But a state of perpetual crisis is really exhausting for our officers to sustain and their margins for error also become unrealistically narrow.”

Though, the Commissioner steered away from saying the new challenges were problems to be solved, and were more so an environment to adapt to.

“I think maybe we just have to accept them as being a consequence of globalisation and have to be able to normalise our preparedness for them,” he said.

“For our border, the new normal of globalisation seems to be an enduring and evolving battle against challenges to our sovereignty.

“This is simply our world and our border needs to be geared up for it.”

For these reasons, Mr Outram said governments, and his agency itself, needed to view borders as more than just lines on a map.

He said they needed to be looked at as “strategic and economic” assets.

“If we conceive of our border as a strategic and economic asset, which balances the forces of globalisation and sovereignty, then like any asset its depreciation should be of serious concern,” he said.

“Failing to invest in it in the coming years will cost much more in the long run.”

Originally published as Globalisation putting borders in ‘perpetual crisis’, ABF chief says