The paramilitary wing of the AFP

The AFP needs to be taken in hand. It needs to return to policing duties. Forays into Foreign Affairs should be taken off their agenda.

The AFP has the staff and budget of a major federal government department. It requires a Minister, preferably a strong one, and a dedicated Senate Committee to oversee its activities.

The AFP is currently pushing for a greater role in Afghanistan, no doubt to try and help secure funding of the IDG. It is the wrong cause to push. Few analysts believe the war can be one. Topography, geography and history will dictate the course of events in Afghanistan.

Keelty has encroached into the public service under what, until now has been the unchallengeable mantra of terrorism. When faced with deciding a course of action following the boarding of a Japanese whaling vessel by two activists, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, said the AFP were providing him with advice on the legalities of their action and the procedures to be followed.

This is not the role of the AFP. The AFP is there to uphold the law, not interpret the law. Foreign Affairs and the Attorney-General’s department have well qualified lawyers to provide advice on issues involving The Law of the Sea. The trigger for the involvement of the AFP was the incomprehensible claim that the actions of the activists might constitute an act of terror.

It is with this mechanism that the AFP have been able to clear the arena, allowing inroads into the Departments of Immigration, Foreign Affairs, Defence, AusAid and Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Terror has been the vehicle for unrestrained empire building by Keelty and the AFP with minimum accountability and an apparent desire to avoid it.