Securing the Australian frontier: An agenda for border security policy

This report explores the key border security concepts and emergent policy challenges that will impact on Australia’s border security policy.

Effective border security allows for the seamless legitimate movement of people and goods across Australia’s borders, which is critical to enhancing trade, travel and migration. The provision of border security involves far more than creating a capability focused solely on keeping our borders secure from potential terrorists, irregular migrants and illicit contraband.

Border security policy deals with a unique operating space, in which extraordinary measures (extraordinary in character, amount, extent or degree) are often needed to provide a sense of security at the same time as creating the sense of normalcy that will allow economic interactions to flourish.

Methamphetamine: Focusing Australia’s National Ice Strategy on the problem, not the symptoms

In this report, law enforcement isn’t focused on arrests, prosecutions, custodial offences or seizures, as none of those will have a guaranteed impact on the problem. The focus is on means to reduce the availability of drugs, the disruption of user behaviour and the integration of education and health initiatives.

The report argues that the National Ice Strategy should consider three key points:

  1. Integration. Drug strategies have a better chance of being successful when each of its initiatives are integrated into a strategically focussed harm reduction strategy.
  2. Innovation. Education, health and enforcement stakeholder should be free from the limitations of wholly quantitative performance measures.
  3. Disruption. Initiatives to tackle the ice problem should be focussed towards the disruption of problems rather than the treatment of symptoms of the problem.

Investing wisely: Spending political capital on Australia’s criminal intelligence capabilities

This report examines a recent proposal to merge the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) and the CrimTrac Agency. There are two distinct—but not irreconcilable—views about this proposal. Reconciling these views will require detailed research about how a merged organisation would benefit all stakeholders—especially the frontline police and criminal intelligence operators in all the jurisdictions.

But does the merger proposal actually address the right question? This report argues that a better way to view this problem is to ask how the Commonwealth can play a role as a steward for national criminal intelligence.

Importantly, this question presents an opportunity for the Australian Justice Minister to give the federal Cabinet a chance to consider the Commonwealth’s role in law enforcement more holistically.