Address to Australian Institute of International Affairs
Commissioner Mick Keelty APM
The Alexander Lecture Theatre Arts Building
University of Western Australia, Perth
Tuesday 21 August 2007
6.00pm to 7.00pm
(Check against delivery)
Sue Boyd, WA President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs
Professor Samina Yasmeen, Vice President of the WA Branch of the Australian Institute of International Affairs (Prof. Yasmeen’s Centre at the University is co-sponsoring the event)
Members of the Australian Institute of International Affairs
Ladies and gentlemen
Thank you, Sue, for that warm introduction.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to be here with you in Perth.
From the outset I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of this land, the Noongah people, and acknowledge their elders both past and present and their connection with this land.
I was very happy when Sue asked me whether I would consider coming to speak to you this evening.
As you know Sue has a long history and involvement with international affairs as the former High Commissioner to Fiji and to Bangladesh, and as a former Ambassador to Vietnam and Consul General to Hong Kong.
Sue was in Fiji during the coup d’état in 2000, and her sense of international relations and her professionalism ensured she remained at her post, performing her role, in what was a highly stressful and risky time.
Sue’s support as High Commissioner to Fiji was integral to the AFP’s Fiji office getting off the ground.
I thank Sue for extending an invitation for me to speak to you.
The role of the Australian Federal Police in law enforcement and prevention in areas such as terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud and economic crime, people smuggling, high-tech crime, transnational sexual offences and aviation security is well-known.
But one area that is often overlooked when discussing the AFP’s broader roles and responsibilities is our major involvement in peacekeeping, regional assistance – for example, in the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste – and in capacity building projects overseas.
All of these are integral to regional security.
And it is our overseas efforts which I’d like to focus on this evening.
At the AFP we’ve faced many challenges in our past, and we will continue to face many more challenges over the coming years.
We’ve changed dramatically since the start of this decade, especially in the breadth of functions we now undertake and in the sheer numbers of members we now have.
In particular, our international role has developed substantially, with the AFP becoming directly involved in an increasing range of international policing issues and building the number of our law enforcement partners.
The AFP’s role in the international arena has evolved dramatically and quickly.
We have an international network comprising 80 officers in 33 cities in 27 countries who maintain ‘face-to-face’ relationships with our law enforcement partners.
Earlier this year we opened a new office in Bangladesh and Guangzhou and we are seeking approval to open an office in New Delhi and one in Vientiane next year.
This international network is a key strategy in the AFP’s fight against transnational crime.
As well, we have signed MOUs with the Metropolitan Police Service and other UK law enforcement agencies to promote closer working relationships and strengthen the transnational crime fighting and counter terrorism response.
These MOUs are vitally important to the work we do in the region and they underpin exchanges between the AFP and the Metropolitan Police Service Counter Terrorism Command and the AFP and other UK law enforcement agencies in order to enhance collaborative relationships.
In November 2006 we signed an MOU with the Royal Thai Police. Also signed were the Exchange of Letters for the development of the Royal Thai Police Transnational Crime Network Project and the establishment and development of the Royal Thai Police Bomb Data Centre.
Collaboration with our international partner agencies in 2006-2007 has resulted in many operational successes, and I’ll briefly mention just a few of them:
- the AFP’s collaboration with Victoria Police and Hellenic authorities resulted in the arrest of an alleged drug trafficker in Greece, who is wanted on drug trafficking and murder charges in Australia;
- in July 2006 a major sophisticated methamphetamine laboratory was located in Kulim, Malaysia. The AFP provided forensic and investigative assistance to the Royal Malaysia Police;
- in May this year an offender was arrested in Bogota, Columbia, who was linked to numerous parcel shipments of cocaine to Australia and other countries. The investigation was conducted by the Transnational Crime Team which is a joint initiative of the AFP and the Colombian Administrative Department of Security. The arrest of this person has disrupted a significant group and demonstrates the effectiveness of our focus on targeting key suspects involved in the global trafficking of cocaine.
I’m sure many of you have heard the news that AFP Assistant Commissioner, Andy Hughes, has been appointed to the role of Police Adviser to the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations.
Andy will assume his new role in New York in September.
He will be the primary adviser to the Under-Secretary-General of Peacekeeping Operations.
Andy will be responsible for the strategic direction and management of all policing issues in peacekeeping operations. This will involve around 10,000 international police across 15 UN missions.
This may sound like an impossible task, but Andy takes with him to New York an impressive 30 year career with the AFP, much of it spent at the international level.
He has made valuable contributions to UN peacekeeping operations in East Timor and Cyprus, and he spent two years in Fiji as Police Commissioner, helping to reform the police force after the 2000 coup d’état.
Australian policing contributions to UN operations have increased in number, complexity and regional diversity since 1964.
UN Peacekeeping originally focused on monitoring ceasefires and truces put into place as part of peace agreements.
Peace had to be in place before the peacekeepers arrived.
Our views of security have changed over the six decades since the UN formed and insisting on a prior peace agreement is no longer possible.
This means that UN police now operate in complex and dangerous multidimensional peace and stability environments that military force alone cannot effectively navigate.
In the 21st century, an effective response to current and emerging crises demands a new suite of players and the AFP is at the forefront of meeting these challenges.
And police, in partnership with other government agencies, do far more than simply keep the peace.
Our focus is on addressing weaknesses in law enforcement and the judicial sector through building capacity in order to reduce conflict, particularly in our own region.
However, should conflict emerge, we are structured to respond in positive, dynamic and meaningful ways in our region and beyond as part of a whole of government process.
It is for these reasons the AFP’s International Deployment Group was established in February 2004 to implement our response to Government direction to provide an effective contribution to UN commitments, regional security and to support Australia’s offshore rule-of-law interests.
We have just over 600 AFP members – comprising both deployed and a-based staff - involved in offshore peacekeeping and capacity building operations at the moment and that figure will climb to some 1200 AFP members by the end of next year.
While our first commitment to UN police operations began in Cyprus in 1964, a commitment which continues to this day, more recent operations involving the AFP are complex.
They demand multiple responses from police, justice, humanitarian and governance specialists along with the military.
Former United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld once said, “Peacekeeping is not a job for soldiers but only soldiers can do it”.
I can say emphatically that this is no longer the case.
The concept of soldiers alone implementing peace agreements between nation states or inside states is now not the norm; indeed peacekeeping is just one part of the complex interventions we now undertake.
Indeed, the longer-term response through capacity-building is becoming much more significant.
Some of the capacity building projects the AFP is involved in include:
The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands or RAMSI continues with broad support of the Pacific Island Forum and endorsement by the UN despite some current differences of opinion.
It is an example of an integrated whole of government multinational state building initiative concentrating on security, economic governance and improving the machinery of government.
RAMSI has achieved encouraging results and public support remains strong.
However, there are significant challenges ahead and much work remains to be done.
Our contribution is, naturally, concentrated on rebuilding the police service, while the mission as a whole also aims to improve accountability and achieve economic reform.
The Law and Justice program is seen as the highly positive face of RAMSI among the people of the Solomon Islands and it has had two major results: significant improvements in the police force; and the development of a functional criminal and civil justice system, albeit with major foreign support.
The result is substantially improved community safety.
The Government of Tonga asked Australia and New Zealand to assist in restoring law and order following riots in Nuku’olofa on 16 November 2006.
On 18 November 2006 the AFP deployed an initial contingent of 34 members as part of an Australian/New Zealand combined task force.
The task force duties, in addition to restoring law and order, were to support the Tongan Police Force in conducting investigations into the rioting and provide forensic and other specialist capabilities.
The bulk of the contingent that eventually numbered 64 returned to Australia on 19 December 2006.
Three advisers remain in Tonga.
This is another example of the ready response capacity of the IDG.
A combined capacity building scoping mission by Australia and New Zealand was undertaken in February 2007.
The focus of this mission was to determine, in consultation with the Government of Tonga, how best to provide assistance in building the capability of the Tongan Police Force.
We expect developments in response to the scoping mission in the near future.
The UN Mission in Sudan was established in March 2005 and tasked with assisting the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement aimed at resolution of the long running North/South civil war.
The police mandate includes development of the Sudanese police service and monitoring and evaluating adherence to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
Australia agreed to contribute 10 police members as mentors, special advisers, planners and trainers for an initial period of 18 months from March 2006.
This contribution is under review.
In late December 2006, the UN and the African Union established a hybrid operation to address the conflict in Dafur.
This operation will include an expansion of the UN Mission in Sudan and the extant African Union Mission in Sudan, however the AFP contribution is likely to remain focused on implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
Established in 1964, the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus continues to be a longstanding traditional peacekeeping operation.
We have had a continuous presence in Cyprus since 1964 and there are 15 officers currently deployed.
These officers undertake law enforcement duties within the buffer zone between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, support the Civil Affairs Branch to deliver humanitarian services and assist the military component in maintaining the integrity of the buffer zone.
In the past six months, AFP members have been pivotal in high profile cases and investigations concerning illegal activity in the bi-communal village of Pyla, human trafficking across the buffer zone and the development of new policing methodologies which are being employed for the first time.
The appointment of an AFP member to the role of Deputy Senior Police Adviser acknowledges the significance of Australia’s contribution to the Cyprus mission.
Australia has been a continuous contributor to peace efforts in Timor Leste since the Popular Consultation in 1999.
Our commitment includes members assigned for duty as UN police and a separate bi-lateral police capacity development program.
Following the unrest in May 2006, the Timor Leste government asked Australia to help restore security and we contributed about 200 police to that task.
We have since scaled that back to 50 officers.
Our bilateral support to the Policia Nacional de Timor-Leste at this time is largely through training provided at the PNTL Academy in Dili in close cooperation with the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor Leste. The bilateral program is a commitment jointly funded by AusAID and the UK Department for International Development.
We are currently developing a proposal to provide enhanced assistance to the PNTL in the critical areas of institutional strengthening and leadership development.
Earlier this year we announced a contribution of four officers to Afghanistan in response to a request from the UK to assist in its counter-narcotics work there.
Two officers will be stationed in Kabul assuming a mentoring role to senior police, and they will act as high-level advisers to the Afghan National Police.
They also assist the Combined Security Transition Command, a multinational security transition force which is overseeing efforts to train and build the capability of the Afghan National Police.
Two officers will also stationed in Jalalabad working in advisory roles with the Counter Narcotics Police in Afghanistan.
In February this year the AFP deployed a member to Phnom Penh in partnership with AusAID. That member is working with a Deputy Commissioner of the Cambodian National Police in a mentoring capacity and examining a range of strategic and policy matters that will guide future Australian assistance to the Cambodian Police.
In February 2006 the AFP began delivering the policing component of the Vanuatu Police Force Capacity Building Project to the Vanuatu Police Force on behalf of AusAID.
The Advisors provide technical advice in the areas of training, investigations, general duties, community policing, human resources and finance. The Project Leader Advises the Commissioner of the Vanuatu Police Force.
Local ni-Vanuatu support the Project in partnership with the AFP and this year the team oversaw the first recruit graduation in more than a decade.
In addition to the capacity building and peacekeeping missions I just mentioned, the International Deployment Group has responsibility for several other capacity building programs in the region.
The AFP’s Law Enforcement Cooperation Program is a series of projects and programs implemented in the Asia-Pacific region focused on countering transnational crime by supporting regional police services.
A key requirement for the program is the existence of a functioning police force that is ready to build on core police knowledge and skills to tackle transnational crime.
Program initiatives include establishing:
- Transnational Crime Centres in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Solomon Islands and Micronesia;
- the Pacific Transnational Crime Coordination Centre;
- the delivery of Disaster Victim Identification training in Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines. This training will be extended to Malaysia, Vietnam and Vanuatu this year; and
- computer based training centres in Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Samoa that provide multi-media, self-paced investigation and knowledge development.
As you can see, we are pursuing a wide range of activities in our region.
And this is what is demanded.
Not only do Australians expect us to step in and help when poverty, violence and misery threaten the stability of a neighbour, but the world expects us to as well.
The world we live in is rapidly changing.
Such a rapid pace of change brings with it public policy issues which lawmakers and law enforcement agencies will have to address in the future.
I’m often asked what the AFP might look like in 20 or 30 years.
Answering that question is like trying to speculate on what society itself will look like in 20 or 30 years time.
It’s an impossible task. But I will briefly touch on a number of distinct possibilities for the kind of society we’ll have in a couple of decades and what the likely implications and challenges for law enforcement might be.
In the future, it might be that many of the challenges to order and safety may derive from climate change.
Massive, unregulated people movements might be a consequence or more frequent natural disasters.
It may be that global terrorism remains a significant threat.
Or perhaps communities might have begun to break down from within, leaving law enforcement agencies to tackle issues of violence, community order and property theft.
What I can say with complete certainty is this.
Over the past five year, the AFP has experienced unprecedented growth and change.
The challenges of leading an organisation like the AFP have changed dramatically since I became Commissioner in 2001.
Today, leadership in policing is very much focused on forging multilateral relationships, networking and international diplomacy. It’s about understanding the complexities of the broader political, social and economic environments in which we operate.
It’s also about anticipating challenges and positioning the organisation to effectively deal with them.
In the future, just as now, the AFP will remain transparent and accountable – to government and the community.
We will continue to adapt to new roles and responsibilities while remaining apolitical.
The AFP, and, I’d argue, all law enforcement agencies, need good leaders will clear vision and direction.
We need people who are able to lead and inspire those around them.
We need people we can trust who can lead us through these difficult times.
Thank you.