Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure, on behalf of the opposition, to speak on the Customs Legislation Amendment (Modernising) Bill 2008, which proposes to amend the Customs Act 1901 and the Customs Legislation Amendment and Repeal (International Trade Modernisation) Act 2001 to update the brokers licensing provision to allow more flexibility in employment practices; to modernise provisions relating to duty recovery and payments under protest and to allow refunds to be applied against unpaid duty in some circumstances; to make it an offence to make false or misleading declarations in using the new SmartGate automated passenger-processing solution; and to reflect the new certificate of origin requirements for the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement.

The amendments in this bill were initially included in the Customs Legislation Amendment (Augmenting Offshore Powers and Other Measures) Bill 2006 and the Customs Legislation Amendment (Modernising Import Controls and Other Measures) Bill 2006, which lapsed when the parliament was prorogued. The legislation is seen as uncontroversial by the opposition. It reflects, almost in its entirety and almost in every word, legislation that the coalition produced when in government. We were, of course, in favour of the bill when we introduced it, and we remain in favour of it today. I refer those people who wish to research the arguments of the opposition with respect to this bill to the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard by Senator the Hon. Eric Abetz when he introduced the coalition’s bill in the Senate in 2006.

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