It’s Canberra or quits for top crime busters

The Australian 12:00am January 12, 2019

Jared Owens

EXCLUSIVE  Australia’s leading criminal intelligence agency plans to recall dozens of operatives from state offices to Canberra, prompting fears of a brain drain as staff take redundancy payouts rather than move to the nation’s capital.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission said the overhaul would ensure its staff were “in the right location, with the right skills” to combat serious and organised crime. But staff have demanded a clearer justification for the change that will ­affect about 65 of the agency’s 800 workers. The restructure will be felt mostly in Queensland, where one-third of about 90 staff expect to be asked to move.

Community and Public Sector Union deputy president Lisa Newman said the commission risked losing some of its best intelligence officers since “few if any” interstate staff would contemplate moving.

“It’s quite mystifying because it’s been delivering a high standard of work; it’s highly regarded here and internationally, and people are puzzled as to why this is happening,” Ms Newman said.

“Those are the staff who have pretty significant networks within the intelligence community, around the country and internationally.”

ACIC said the plan was ­designed to “enable operational effectiveness” and would include “centralising some roles that have a national focus”.

“The realignment of staff is not a ‘brain drain’ but the co-ordination of capability to ensure we have staff in the right location, with the right skills to deliver on the agency’s national and international focus as Australia’s centre of excellence and partner of choice for criminal intelligence,” it said in a statement.

“We will continue to have a strong operational presence in each state and territory, including Queensland.”

Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan questioned the plan, saying his officers were already being “forced to fill security gaps” following curbs on federal police resourcing.

“Peter Dutton likes to talk the talk but there are increasingly disturbing signs that when it comes to important issues of national ­security he doesn’t walk the walk,” Mr Ryan said.

Mr Ryan’s office could not identify specific gaps that had been filled by state police, but ­insisted federal budget decisions had increased the overall burden on his officers.

Mr Dutton, the Home Affairs Minister, suggested Mr Ryan raise his concerns about ACIC with Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart, who sits on its board. “Neither Mr Stewart or Mr Ryan have ever raised with me any criticism of the AFP or their efforts in Queensland. In fact, to the contrary,” he said.

AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin said last May that budget cuts could affect discretionary areas such as organised crime, fraud, anti-corruption and child-exploitation policing.