{"id":36381,"date":"2017-12-15T06:00:46","date_gmt":"2017-12-14T19:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=36381"},"modified":"2018-05-03T21:37:57","modified_gmt":"2018-05-03T11:37:57","slug":"talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking to the chiefs: Andrew Colvin (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Andrew Colvin had two key concerns when the prospect of a new department of home affairs first emerged. \u2018A Home Affairs portfolio makes a lot of sense in this country\u2019, the Australian Federal Police commissioner tells The Strategist<\/em>. \u2018I believed that anything that saw the AFP and the Border Force better aligned under the same ministerial and departmental arrangement was a good thing. I\u2019d always been against Customs being moved out of the portfolio. That was a logical partnership and we needed to be together\u2019, Colvin says.<\/p>\n

\u2018The only other thing that worried me was the need to maintain statutory independence. As long as the independence of the office of the commissioner to make decisions is unfettered, then that\u2019s a good thing.\u2019<\/p>\n

Malcolm Turnbull settled that question with his announcement that the new portfolio would be more like the British model than the American one\u2014a \u2018federation \u2026 of border and security agencies\u2019 under which the various agencies would retain their statutory independence.<\/p>\n

\u2018All I needed to make sure was that statutorily I maintained the independence of the agency to make the decisions we need to make on behalf of the community\u2019, Colvin says. \u2018Again, it\u2019s a bit like the frog in the water. Things are getting hotter and hotter and we need to come together better. It\u2019s not that we weren\u2019t cooperating\u2014we\u2019re cooperating very strongly. Our relationship with ASIO is as good as it\u2019s ever been because it has to be. Bringing us together gives us a force multiplier, allows us to trade off each other\u2019s capabilities better and to develop capabilities better.<\/p>\n

\u2018We see all the upside to Home Affairs. I\u2019m very pleased that it will cement the AFP at the centre of our national security arrangements, with a senior minister. I\u2019m pleased that it aligns the agencies we work with so we\u2019ll all be on the same page, heading in the same direction.\u2019<\/p>\n

Terrorism is the AFP\u2019s main concern, Colvin says, but he\u2019s confident the force is doing everything it can to deal with it. \u2018If, heaven forbid, there\u2019s an attack in Australia, then the reviews that will follow will find things we could have done better but, by and large, I\u2019m confident we\u2019ve got our settings right and we\u2019re working very hard on that\u2019, he says.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m less confident that we\u2019ve got a good handle on organised crime, largely offshore-based organised crime whose reach into this country is quite extensive. It\u2019s difficult because these people are out of our reach, in jurisdictions far away. They\u2019re operating over mediums like the internet that make it very hard to track them down.\u2019<\/p>\n

Individuals in Australia are falling victim to financial scams and to online love scams. \u2018That\u2019s bad, but I\u2019m worried more about the integrity of our financial systems and our borders, the possibility of large hits to take down our banks or electricity grids or the computer system at a container port.<\/p>\n

\u2018These are possible.\u2019<\/p>\n

As security agencies make it more difficult for organised crime to operate within Australia\u2019s borders, they move operations offshore in Southeast Asia or the Pacific, Colvin says. \u2018There, they have just as much influence as they\u2019d have in Australia but they\u2019re harder for us to reach.<\/p>\n

\u2018They can use the internet and global trade can be run from anywhere these days. It\u2019s not hard to anonymise and encrypt your communications. You don\u2019t need to be in the jurisdiction any more to commit crimes here. That\u2019s a real challenge for us and it\u2019s why relationships with our partners, which have always been important, are now crucial.\u2019<\/p>\n

Colvin says the beauty and the challenge of the AFP is the spectrum it covers. \u2018In Canberra, people expect me to run a community policing organisation. In the middle, I\u2019m running a counterterrorism organisation and I\u2019m tackling the absolute upper end of society in terms of white-collar crime, foreign bribery, fraud and tax evasion, which is as sophisticated a crime as you\u2019re ever going to have to investigate.\u2019<\/p>\n

Colvin says his police colleagues worldwide feel they\u2019re measured almost solely on crime statistics, crime trends and numbers of police. \u2018Every election it\u2019s about numbers of police and how many police stations are open; are crime statistics going up or down? To a man and woman, officers will tell you that\u2019s not a good way to measure policing. Telling me where to put a police station does not reduce crime in that area. There are other ways to do it, but that\u2019s the way we\u2019ve traditionally been driven.\u2019<\/p>\n

The AFP has to adapt to deal with crime in the 21st century, Colvin says, and how that\u2019s being done is set out in the agency\u2019s strategy, Policing for a safer Australia<\/a><\/em>, which the commissioner launched at ASPI on Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It will require an element of innovation and risk, the commissioner says, and hierarchical organisations are not good at either. \u2018We do stymie, unintentionally, innovation within our organisations, so we\u2019re trying to free the AFP up to think differently and experiment.\u2019<\/p>\n

To do that it needs to become more forgiving. \u2018If people get it wrong\u2014it depends on what they get wrong of course\u2014but if their intentions were good, they were trying a new way of doing something that didn\u2019t work, well, that\u2019s not such a bad thing, as long as we\u2019re not talking about questions of integrity or values\u2019, Colvin says.<\/p>\n

\u2018I can\u2019t have the community thinking the police force is just out there playing and experimenting, but I\u2018ll lose a lot of the young people coming into the organisation now If I ask them to conform to what was the standard 10 years ago rather than what they want to do, which is to conform to a standard of the next decade. That\u2019s clearly different to where we used to be.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Colvin had two key concerns when the prospect of a new department of home affairs first emerged. \u2018A Home Affairs portfolio makes a lot of sense in this country\u2019, the Australian Federal Police commissioner …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":587,"featured_media":36390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[805,273,546,988],"class_list":["post-36381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-afp","tag-counterterrorism","tag-organised-crime","tag-policing","dinkus-talking-to-the-chiefs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTalking to the chiefs: Andrew Colvin (part 2) | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Talking to the chiefs: Andrew Colvin (part 2) | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Andrew Colvin had two key concerns when the prospect of a new department of home affairs first emerged. \u2018A Home Affairs portfolio makes a lot of sense in this country\u2019, the Australian Federal Police commissioner ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-14T19:00:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-05-03T11:37:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/colvin-2011213-002.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"736\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brendan Nicholson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Jerry Cashman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brendan Nicholson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/colvin-2011213-002.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/colvin-2011213-002.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":736},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/\",\"name\":\"Talking to the chiefs: Andrew Colvin (part 2) | The Strategist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-14T19:00:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-05-03T11:37:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/05899c3f9ed739cee652cbad02490edb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Talking to the chiefs: Andrew Colvin (part 2)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/05899c3f9ed739cee652cbad02490edb\",\"name\":\"Brendan Nicholson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/432efb040ac92cb9a2cecaa148e1f70f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/432efb040ac92cb9a2cecaa148e1f70f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Brendan Nicholson\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jerry Cashman\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/brendan-nicholson\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Talking to the chiefs: Andrew Colvin (part 2) | The Strategist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Talking to the chiefs: Andrew Colvin (part 2) | The Strategist","og_description":"Andrew Colvin had two key concerns when the prospect of a new department of home affairs first emerged. \u2018A Home Affairs portfolio makes a lot of sense in this country\u2019, the Australian Federal Police commissioner ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/","og_site_name":"The Strategist","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org","article_published_time":"2017-12-14T19:00:46+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-05-03T11:37:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":736,"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/colvin-2011213-002.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Brendan Nicholson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Jerry Cashman","twitter_site":"@ASPI_org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brendan Nicholson","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/","name":"The Strategist","description":"ASPI's analysis and commentary site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/colvin-2011213-002.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/colvin-2011213-002.jpg","width":1024,"height":736},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/","name":"Talking to the chiefs: Andrew Colvin (part 2) | The Strategist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2017-12-14T19:00:46+00:00","dateModified":"2018-05-03T11:37:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/05899c3f9ed739cee652cbad02490edb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/talking-to-the-chiefs-andrew-colvin-part-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Talking to the chiefs: Andrew Colvin (part 2)"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/05899c3f9ed739cee652cbad02490edb","name":"Brendan Nicholson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/432efb040ac92cb9a2cecaa148e1f70f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/432efb040ac92cb9a2cecaa148e1f70f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Brendan Nicholson"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jerry Cashman"],"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/brendan-nicholson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/587"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36381"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36389,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36381\/revisions\/36389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}