Steve Symon: Organised Crime Ministerial Advisory Group Chair on the lack of information sharing in tackling transnational crime

There are fears limited information sharing is hindering authorities efforts to tackle transnational crime. 

A report from a Ministerial Advisory Group focused on organised crime says there's sparse coordination between agencies, technological limitations, and people are fearful of sharing what could be useful information. 

It's recommending a new sharing framework and tweaks to the Privacy Act to make it easier. 

Chair Steve Symon told Mike Hosking change is needed. 

He says he's been a prosecutor for 20 years and it's been the bane of their existence, which has worsened over time as agencies become more siloed and risk adverse. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
More reported from the Ministerial Advisory Group on Organized Crime,
So this time they're calling for more effective data sharing. Essentially,
the constraints around information sharing is hindering government agencies in
responding to organized crime. Where have we heard that before?
Steve Simon is the chair of the Ministerial Advisory Group,
of course, and his back with us. Steve, morning to you,
Good morning mate. That whole sharing of information thing. I've
been dealing with that for four decades in the media

(00:21):
every time there's a report out somebody is not talking
to somebody else. Has any Has that surprised you and
has anything changed?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
No, it hasn't surprised me. Much like yourself. I think
I've been a prosecutor for twenty years and I think
it's been the bane of our existence that entire time.
If anything, I think it's probably got worse as government
agencies have become more siloed and have become more risk adverse.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
So is it attitude, is it the law therefore you're
not allowed to or is it technical or all of that?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
It's all of it. I think it starts though, with culture. Mike.
I think your point of it's been this consistent problem
over the years, and I think that's what that's driving,
is this culture of if I don't share, I can't
get I won't get in trouble. If I do share,
I might get in trouble. So you can see which
option people are usually choosing.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
So you're talking about privacy settings when it comes to
sharing of information and stuff. Are we a bit freaked
out about privacy settings? Does the government have a real
issue around this or do we need to make some
sort of bold step if we want to get serious
about what you're looking at.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
I think we need to take bold steps if we
want to tackle organize crime. What we're seeing is organized
crime is just that it's organized. It is using technology,
it is using untraceable apps, it's using big data. It's
doing things we are not, and we need to have
a conversation. Yes, we are keen to balance the rights

(01:47):
to privacy, but we also need to balance that against
our need to tackle this organized crime problem before it
gets worse.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Indeed, are you getting good feedback from the government. Are
you seeing some results of your work so far?

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yes, we are. I mean we're seeing a huge amount
of support from the government agencies we've been speaking to.
Whether that be Police and Corrections and Customs and all
of those big agencies. This work they'll work about sharing
of information is probably the least sexy part of the
work that we're doing, but it's probably some of the

(02:22):
most important stuff because it's taking the information that is
already available to law enforcement but making sure it gets
the right place to be used lawfully to target organised crime.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Good stuff, Keep up the good work and we'll talk again.
Certain Steve Simon, share of the Ministerial Advisory Group on
Organized Crime.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
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