Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett has called for a renewed national conversation about illicit drug use, arguing that Australians' demand for drugs such as cocaine is directly fuelling the organised crime violence, including shootings and mistaken-identity killings, that has recently plagued communities in New South Wales and beyond. Barrett stresses that while criminals who pull the trigger or traffic drugs bear responsibility for the violence, the underlying driver is the vast profits generated by Australia's own consumption habits, which she says the public has been reluctant to confront until now.

Barrett notes that at this year's Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group meeting, senior officials from Australia, the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand agreed it was difficult to get the public to engage with the dangers of drug use, but believes recent violent incidents have changed the public mood. She cites the case of former Melbourne underworld figure Kaz Hamad, sentenced to life imprisonment in Iraq for drug trafficking and linked to Melbourne's "tobacco wars" and associated firebombings, as an example of how the same crime networks profit from cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and illicit tobacco alike. Since becoming Commissioner in October 2025, Barrett has set five priorities, including defending domestic security, protecting vulnerable communities, and "supercharging" global operations to pursue offshore offenders.