Labor’s Dismantling of Home Affairs Undermines Australians’ Safety:
Cyber Security Shadow Minister
Epoch Times – 06 June 2022
Shadow Minister James Paterson
has raised concerns about the Labor government’s move to “dismantle” the
Department of Home Affairs, warning that it could come at the expense of
Australians’ safety.
The comment comes after the Anthony Albanese led government released its
first Administrative Arrangements Order
(AAO) which announced a downsize of the Home Affairs department, four years
since its inception in 2017.
Under the AAO, the Home Affairs department, which was established to
manage immigration and national security, will lose several functions,
including the Australian Federal Police (AFP), criminal justice and protective
services. Those responsibilities will instead be transferred to
attorney-general Mark Dreyfus.
Meanwhile, Home Affairs will retain control of the domestic intelligence
agency ASIO and national security functions. Responsibility for natural
disaster management, including the National Recovery and Resilience Agency,
will be added to Home Affairs, which is now chaired by former aged care
minister Clare O’Neil.
Paterson criticised Labor for “effectively abolishing” the home affairs
without informing Australians about the move prior to the election or providing
any public justification since the changes were made.
“It is not the Department of Home Affairs as it was,” he told Sky News on Monday.
“My fear is it’ll in fact won’t make Australians safer. It’ll make us
less safe.”
The Liberal senator described home affairs as a “very innovative reform”
by the then Malcolm Turnbull government which has protected Australians from
mass casualty terrorist attacks, foreign interference and espionage, and
strengthen Australia’s cyber security.
“And all of that is being dismantled and undermined,” Paterson added.
He also alleged that the overhaul of the home affairs is a “grab of
power” by Attorney General Dreyfus who has opposed the creation of the
department.
In 2017, Dreyfus and some other politicians including then-foreign
minister Julie Bishop and then-defence minister Marise Payne were against the
decision to bring together all security agencies and law enforcement bodies
under Home Affairs.
But Paterson argued “that was the right thing to do” as it allows
national security agencies to “work together in a seamless way.”
According to its AAO, the Albanese government will also create a new
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water to oversee air
quality and resources—functions that were previously merged into the
agriculture and industry portfolios.
A new Department of Employment and Workplace Relations will also be
established to reduce the Department of Education’s responsibilities to early
childhood education, schools and higher education issues.
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