Tag Archive for: border protection

Gun trafficking and mandatory jail terms

With an estimated 260,000 illegal (unregistered) guns already in Australia, the horse is already on its way out the stable door. Still, every illegal firearm counts: the significance of the threat is such that government must work diligently to ensure the figure’s not 260,001. So how do we cut the figure—or, at a minimum, slow its growth? One way is to bring pressure to bear on suppliers. And one option there is to impose stricter penalties for the crime. But mandatory sentencing of illicit firearm traffickers is unlikely to result in supply reduction.

For all intents and purposes Australia’s sentencing and incarceration system is focused on four key goals; incapacitation, punishment, deterrence and rehabilitation. The proposed legislative changes, to introduce mandatory five year sentences for firearms traffickers, focus on the application of mandatory sentencing to achieve an increased deterrent effect. Read more

Integrity at the Border

DIBP is going to be a border enforcement agency

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) is going to be a border enforcement agency! That’s hardly an earth-shattering statement, given the public policy dialogue in the media and senate estimates over the last three years. For enforcement agencies public trust and confidence are essential to the delivery of agency outcomes. And increased integrity and professionalism are the strategic capabilities that will assure public trust and confidence. But if this argument is so clear why are some immigration staff already struggling with the identity transformation associated with proposed changes to departmental accountability regimes.

From my perspective, the challenge of border security is just as much about maintaining the Australian people’s confidence in the probity of the DIBP, as it is about the provision of security outcomes. Sure the Australian public service demands its staff display higher levels of accountability compared to their private sector counterparts. But public service accountability, for the most part, resides with senior staff involved with the processes of policy determination, although this does not extinguish responsibility at implementation. Read more

Australia and the issue of border security

Border protection: Australian style

Why is ASPI starting a border security program? Why is border security important to an island country with no land borders? Where and what is a border in a globalised world?

In the past a bureaucrat probably would have answered those questions by talking about the border in terms of revenue, trade or regulation. Alternatively, an academic may have talked about the border in terms of the boundary of sovereign authority and the quickening tempo of globalisation. A military commander might have focused more on Australia’s 35,876 kilometres of coastline, with its corresponding maritime and air approaches. And a politician most likely would have discussed the border in terms of maintaining public confidence in government.

I think it’s safe to say that national borders are not obsolete constructs, despite the thickening strands of global connectivity. But simple answers no longer do justice to the complexity of the border security policy challenge. Read more