The Government is not intending to support the motion and I will explain in detail.

Obviously it is the case Mr Deputy Speaker that the Australian Government takes all allegations of illegal activity very seriously. Everyone must abide by the Australian law and that is particularly the case for any members of our law enforcement, our immigration or our customs authorities.

They, of course, as part of the broader Australian law enforcement community hold very privileged positions and as such are expected to uphold the highest standards of integrity and professionalism at all times.

A strong integrity and professional standards culture is fundamental to public confidence in our work and the Australian Government’s work.

I have considered the allegations that have been raised in media reporting and particularly as they touch upon allegations which are either directly relatable to, or tangentially relatable to, Commonwealth officers.

It is my view that there are sufficient concerns raised at least to warrant further investigations.

Now I might note for the benefit of Members that were speaking to this motion that saying that there are sufficient concerns to warrant me as Attorney-General to refer this matter for consideration under section 18 of the Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner Act 2006, is not to say that I have before me, or that there is any obvious evidence otherwise available that supports allegations against law enforcement, immigration or customs authorities. Rather it is the case that s18 of the Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner Act might be called a precautionary referral provision and I have already enacted that provision earlier today.

So i can inform the House that I have already referred this matter, these allegations, to the Australian Commissioner for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI), under section 18 of the Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner Act 2006.

And under that referral provision it would now become open for ACLEI to decide whether or not to launch an investigation or indeed if they determined not to, that would be a matter which they would need to inform me as to what it was that they considered was appropriate and if it was no further action they would need to advise me of that and obviously that is advice that I would relay publicly.