Aussie candidates promise crackdown on crime

CANBERRA - Australia faces a major crackdown on drugs, gangs and street crime following promises by the major parties yesterday to clamp down on weapons and to boost co-ordination of the nation's law agencies.

The swing to law and order was another in a series of plays to fear in the suburbs that has marked an election campaign bereft of real reforms and largely confined to one-upmanship across a broad range of policies.

Law-and-order pledges by both the Government and Opposition also took the campaign for the August 21 election into territory constitutionally held by the states outside the enforcement of federal laws.

The new promises were also played against the continuing background of leaks that have plagued Prime Minister Julia Gillard, diverting her campaign by forcing Labor to lose time in defending itself against perceptions of disintegration from within.

Gillard has been forced to admit challenging the introduction of paid parental leave and higher pensions on economic grounds following the third leak by a "rat" within senior Government ranks.

Although to some degree blunting the impact of the leak by breaking Cabinet confidentiality to explain her position, Gillard has opened herself to a telling attack by the Opposition, which continued yesterday to portray Labor as a Government out of control.

"Since Julia Gillard took over we've gone from incompetence to incompetence, chaos to chaos, shambles to shambles," Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said.

Shoring up her defences against Abbott, Gillard said she intended to impose strict Cabinet discipline if returned to power: "If there is anybody in my Government who does not respect the confidentiality of Cabinet, then they will no longer be a Cabinet Minister."

Speculation about the source of the leaks has focused on Kevin Rudd, but the ousted former Prime Minister yesterday received support from both sides of politics.

Gillard described him as an "honourable person", and Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey expressed his disbelief at the suggestion: "I know Kevin. I'd be surprised if [he] was the source of the leaks."

Labor also moved to deflect another of the Opposition's flank attacks, releasing details of its preference agreement with the Greens to kill repeated allegations of a secret policy deal that would become known only after the election.

The agreement, published on Fairfax websites yesterday, did not make reference to policy and was confined to the distribution of preferences - Labor advising its supporters to place the Greens ahead of all other candidates in Senate preferences, and the Greens recommending preferences for Labor in 54 marginal seats.

But both parties addressed the raw fears of voters yesterday.

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor released a new policy tightening controls on weapons including a variety of knives, body armour, extendable batons, flails, maces and offensive "claws" for feet and hands.

Federal and state police ministers have already agreed to move towards uniform national laws on the possession and regulation of such weapons.

O'Connor said new federal moves would focus on tighter border controls, especially permit systems that have been inconsistent in their application.

Last year 16,700 bladed weapons had been confiscated by Customs, and the new policy would require importers to demonstrate a legal purpose in bringing them into the country.

Abbott's policy is designed to counter bikie and crime gangs, and illegal operations such as drug trafficking that cross state borders.

He said a Coalition Government would create a national violent gangs squad of 200 investigators, a national gangs data base, and more metal detectors to alert police to concealed weapons. A key target would be knives, responsible for about half the 300 murders committed in Australia every year.

"It's important that we crack down on knife crime because knives are helping to make our streets far less safe [and] we will be adding to the list of restricted knife imports," Abbott said.

Although lacking uniform laws in a number of areas, Australia already has a nationwide campaign against drug traffickers, bikie gangs and other organised crime, co-ordinated through the Australian Crime Commission.

A study by the Australian Institute of Criminology also reports fear of crime exceeds the reality, with almost 90 per cent of the nation believing crime had got worse, or at least stayed the same, over the two years to 2007.

In fact crime rates had fallen, the study said.