We’re coming up to a new year and it appears that 2018 will start with a re-brand of Australia’s National Security and Intelligence arrangements.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP, which was formally known as Australian Customs) will now come under the umbrella of the Department of Home Affairs.
The Australian Border Force, (Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, Australian Federal Police and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre) will remain operationally independent with the Department providing strategic and policy leadership.
” On 18 July 2017 the Prime Minister announced reforms to Australia’s national security and intelligence arrangements. These reforms involved establishing a Department of Home Affairs and a Home Affairs Portfolio.
The Department of Home Affairs is a central policy agency, providing coordinated strategy and policy leadership for Australia’s national and transport security, federal law enforcement, criminal justice, cyber security, border, immigration, multicultural affairs, emergency management and trade related functions. The Department of Home Affairs includes the entirety of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. It also includes national security, emergency management and criminal justice functions from the Attorney-General’s Department; the Office of Transport Security from the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development; multicultural affairs from the Department of Social Services; and the counter-terrorism coordination and cyber security policy functions from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
The Department of Home Affairs, and the wider Portfolio, was officially stood up on 20 December 2017. References to functions under previous departments are being progressively updated in the first half of 2018.”
