PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning ladies and gentleman, I am here with the Minister and the Commissioner to announce the largest single increase since the establishment of the Australian Federal Police in 1979 in the numbers in that force. We are proposing to increase the International Deployment Group by no fewer than 422 additional officers. It will take the IDG to a total of 1200 personnel, and the Government is doing this because we believe that the need for international deployments by the Australian Federal Police will, in all likelihood, increase in our region over the years ahead.
As I indicated yesterday when I announced a major increase in the size of the Australian Army, regional instability in a number of countries, evidenced recently by what happened in East Timor and the Solomon Islands, is likely to continue, indeed intensify. We need, not only a military capability, but we also need a police capability. And the example very recently of East Timor showed a clear demarcation between the military need in the very early stages, and then the policing stabilisation need after the initial work of the military had been completed.
The Australian Federal Police have done an outstanding job on the international deployments. Australians will never forget the wonderful investigative work in cooperation with the Indonesian police in the wake of the Bali attack in 2002. And the AFP has established a permanently high reputation in the region for great investigative work and also highly professional, day-to-day policing, and by increasing the international group by 422, we are lifting it to a capacity where it will have a 150-strong Operational Response Group, which will provide a constant state of readiness for emergency responses to law and order issues and stabilisation operations.
The cost of lifting the International Deployment Group establishment by 422 will be $493.2 million over the next five years. This comes on top of major increases in the funding of the Australian Federal Police over the last five years and is another demonstration of this Government's determination to provide all the money needed to adequately reinforce our security capacity, whether it's in the military or in the police. The extra positions will be delivered over the next two years. In case this might be seen by some as precursing a raid on the state police forces, I've been informed by the Commissioner that there are at the present time, some 2000 people wanting to join the Australian Federal Police, and we don't anticipate that we will have any trouble getting these people, obviously if personnel in the state forces wish to join, that's their right, that's their right now, and that's not going to change.
Currently, it's worth noting that the AFP has, through its International Deployment Group, 470 personnel deployed in the Solomon Islands, in East Timor, in Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Vanuatu, Sudan, Cyprus and Jordan, that gives you an idea of the breadth of its deployment, and in the case of places such as Cyprus there's been a deployment which has now been going on, what somewhere in the order of fifteen years isn't it?
COMMISSIONER KEELTY:
Since 1964.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there you are forty years, good heavens. It's been going on for a very, very long time. But this is a very important day for the Australian Federal Police and I am delighted to have the Commissioner and the Minister with me, it will reinforce the determination of the Government to support the AFP, and you do need in places such as the Pacific, you do need both a military capability, and a police capability. And there is a point where the best people to have on the ground are police rather than soldiers because the nature of the tasks are policing tasks and in this country, and in our society we have a long tradition of keeping the roles of the military and the police very separate, although they combine and they complement each other, they are very different roles. And just as we need an increased and larger Army, so we need a greater commitment to the Australian Federal Police, this is a huge additional investment and I am sure the money will be spent wisely, and I am sure the reputation of the force will be further enhanced. Thank you, any questions?
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, school cadets were mentioned, where do they fit into this?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think the reference I made yesterday to school cadets was more in relation to the Army, the point I was trying to make, and the Air Force for that matter, the point I was trying make yesterday was that if young people, particularly at this stage in Australia's history, want to join the school cadets, they in many cases, because it is in government schools no longer in any way remotely compulsory, it shows that they do have some interest in the military life, and the point I was trying to make yesterday was, that we should really nurture that interest, and have stronger links between the permanent Army and school cadet corps, because I think they are a future source. Whether the fact that some young people want to be in the cadets, whether that also means they might be disposed to join the police, possibly, but I think it's more a link between the Army and school cadets. No other questions? Great.
JOURNALIST:
On Telstra can I...?
PRIME MINISTER:
On Telstra?
JOURNALIST:
One question.
PRIME MINISTER:
You can ask me a question.
JOURNALIST:
What are the stumbling blocks for the government in ...?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't have any to add to what I've previously said on that subject.
JOURNALIST:
Can you say what the Government plans to do with its 51 per cent stake?
PRIME MINISTER:
It remains the Government's policy to fully privatise, as to the details of how, when, at what pace, and in what form, that will have to the subject of further announcements. But nothing has changed in relation to the Government's policy, we got the authority of Parliament to fully privatise, that remains our policy. It is not good for Telstra to be in majority share ownership of the Government, it's bad for the company, and it's in everybody's interest that the full privatisation take place, as to the details, as I say, that would have to be the subject of another announcement.
JOURNALIST:
With the AFP (inaudible) the new lot, will that make it easier for us to then come up with numbers that are in Australia or will some of those go over to the...?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well this is all designed to increase the international deployment, but that's the whole idea. We see a bigger need, and a greater role, and therefore we are recruiting more people, that's the whole idea.
Thank you.
[ends]