National security fears over AFP shift

National security experts have warned stripping the Australian Federal Police from Home Affairs will be ‘disruptive’.

ANU National Security College policy director William Stoltz said relocating the AFP in the Attorney-General’s Department would cause ‘another 12 months of churn and reorganisation’.

National security experts have warned stripping the Australian Federal Police from Home Affairs will be “disruptive” and create an “awkward divide” between the policymaking arms of homeland security and its key law enforcement body.

As Opposition Leader Peter Dutton warned the change would “make us less safe”, ANU ­National Security College policy director William Stoltz said relocating the AFP in the Attorney-General’s Department would cause “another 12 months of churn and reorganisation” without delivering better law enforcement outcomes.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s policing and law ­enforcement program director, John Coyne, warned the change would be “incredibly difficult” and expose “a lot of capability gaps in the Attorney-General’s Department”.

In a key machinery of government overhaul, Anthony Albanese has broken up the Home Affairs mega-department, shifting the AFP, financial crimes watchdog AUSTRAC and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission into the Attorney-General’s portfolio, just five years after they were removed from it.

New Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, who railed against the AFP being shifted into Home ­Affairs in the first place, said the government “has complete ­confidence in the ability of the AFP to fight crime and keep Australians safe”.

“The government always puts Australia’s interests and national security first. Any suggestion to the contrary is ridiculous and wrong, and the Opposition ­Leader should reflect on his behaviour,” he said.

The Australian Federal Police Association welcomed the change, saying the law enforcement agency “should be closely aligned with the portfolio that makes the laws in Australia”.

The Law Council of Australia also backed the decision, saying the return of the law enforcement agencies to the Attorney-General’s portfolio brought them under the same organisational roof as key oversight bodies, ­including the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement ­Integrity and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.

But Dr Stoltz said the change would require the separation of law enforcement policymakers over two departments.

“This is now going to create an awkward divide across the public service by having the policymaking for law enforcement separate from the policymaking for other homeland security related ­issues,“ he said.

“Policies relating to things like organised crime, terrorism and cyber security will now have to be split across ­Attorney-General’s and Home Affairs. It is really ­ambiguous how that is going to work.”

Dr Stoltz said the arrangement would complicate the role of the Office of National Intelligence, which has an oversight role of all national security agencies, and could result in agencies being “pulled in different directions”.

Dr Coyne said the change would be “messy”, and risked ­operational consequences.

“Now you will see the Australian Border Force at the border, under Home Affairs, and elements of counter-terrorism being done under ASIO, at Home ­Affairs, and then you will have other elements of it being done at Attorney-General’s,” he said.

Mr Dutton warned of serious budget implications for the AFP, AUSTRAC and ACIC under Mr Albanese’s public service shake-up.

The new Opposition Leader, who is expected to finalise his shadow cabinet and frontbench line-up on Friday, said joint-agency co-operation ­targeting paedophiles, criminal gangs, terrorists and drug dealers would also be negatively ­impacted.

“This is exactly what happened in the Rudd-Gillard years where all of the agencies were working separately,” he said. “One of the huge successes that we had out of the Home Affairs portfolio was in the child protection space and all of the agencies working together.

“AUSTRAC providing the information about financial transactions of paedophiles who were purchasing different videos and travel and all sorts of things, and that intelligence led into what federal police was doing, and the Australian Crime Commission, and it led to some pretty phenomenal outcomes.

“I just worry that going back into this siloed arrangement … is going to make us less safe as a country.”