Officials from the Australian Border Force are under police investigation, after The Age uncovered a network of ABF officials allegedly working for organised crime, smuggling drugs and tobacco into this country. You know – the very opposite of their job. Bad job.
The Fairfax investigation also found cases of alleged corruption involving staff from the ABF, the Department of Agriculture, and maritime industry employees with government clearance.
One of them – a 30-year-old employee at the Department of Agriculture called Richard Vong – was arrested on Wednesday. He’s facing court today on charges of trafficking and possessing a drug of dependence, knowingly dealing in the proceeds of crime, dealing in property reasonably suspected of being the proceeds of crime, and theft of Commonwealth property.
Honestly, the entire Fairfax investigation is an absolutely doozy, and alleges that not only are several corrupt officials are still operating, but that the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) is woefully understaffed to stamp it out.
“While the Department is unable to comment on the status of the current investigations, it can confirm it has been working in partnership with the ACLEI,” it said, adding that “a number of significant integrity reforms were introduced” following a corruption scandal at Sydney airport in late 2012.
Government frontbencher Josh Frydenberg also repeated the statement that these allegations are not new, telling the ABC that the department “are obviously working on them, and such behaviour will not be tolerated.”
“We’ll take every possible measure to ensure that those people, if they have behaved in a way that is criminal, face the appropriate justice system.”
FWIW, The Age says they delayed reporting on the scandal for several months, at the request of the authorities.
So in summary:
- The Age uncovered alleged incidences of corruption and smuggling
- They didn’t report on it for months at the request of authorities
- Now that this matter has progressed to court and can be reported on, the Immigration Department and Josh Frydenberg are keen to stress that this is “not new”
- Our Immigration Minister is still a potato.
