Page 4082 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 October 1991
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referred to the fact, as if it were significant, that the Attorney-General spoke fluent Italian. I speak fluent French - or I think I do - but does that make me part of a French connection? That shameful episode of the NCA is now over.
I wish to say at this juncture that I spent a good part of my youth dealing with organised criminal activity in this country. I spent years on the activities of Chinese Triad groups. I believe that there was an overfocus on Italian activities in those years and not enough on Australian-Chinese links, particularly those that evolved in this country during and after the Vietnam war . I will not go further into those matters in this speech, but I believe that the new focus of the National Crime Authority should take it to Vanuatu, Hong Kong and seaboard places in continental United States, particularly Atlantic City, where money laundering, organised crime and the activities that surround casinos particularly can be looked at.
The NCA is governed by an intergovernmental committee. I sat on that committee as an observer until the Federal legislation was recently amended. I assure the house that the current chair, Mr Justice Phillips, reports comprehensively to meetings of the IGC. I particularly welcome the chairman's proposals earlier this year for greater cooperation between the NCA and other law enforcement agencies by encouraging the development of joint task forces, including greater sharing of intelligence, and the use of public conferences to elicit advice and support from academia and the public at large.
I believe that Mr Justice Phillips is likely to do away with the partisanship that has tended to encircle the NCA, particularly in its statutory connection with the Bureau of Criminal Intelligence, which is referred to at subclause 6(2) of the Bill before the house. I believe that we need to have full and frank disclosure, not competitiveness, in this circuit. I regret to say that there is still an element of competitiveness within the police commissioners circle to do with the NCA.
Hopefully, those concepts that the NCA was an exclusive club will be broken down. I believe that those concepts started under a former chair, when the police were regarded as corruptible at the highest level in some areas of this country. Fortunately, decisive action has been taken, particularly in Queensland, and I think it is in our interests to encourage the NCA to get more closely involved with those other bodies.
That brings me to section 51 of the parent Act, namely, the secrecy and accountability to parliament provision. I am most concerned about events which arose in Federal Parliament, particularly last year, when the parliamentary joint committee risked involving the NCA as a political football. I was most concerned then about leakage of information from the PJC. It appeared to be from the PJC;
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