Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on the Customs Amendment (Enhanced Border Controls and Other Measures) Bill 2008. At the outset I congratulate the Minister for Home Affairs, the Hon. Bob Debus, for the work he has put into ensuring that Australia’s legislative measures in terms of Customs and border protection controls are adequate for the task that is required. I do not think there would be anybody in this place that would argue against the importance of border control and also not applaud the efforts of our Customs officials and other people who work in those areas. It is such an important job and critical to the future of Australia in terms of people movements and in terms of people importing illegal goods, drugs and guns. One thing that particularly concerns me is the smuggling of people, which is an abhorrent trade that thrives around the world. It is important that we in this place continue to improve the legislation to ensure that we have the right tools for our Customs officials and other officials in terms of border control to make sure they can do their jobs properly.

I want to mention the member for Solomon, who is also speaking on this bill. The member for Solomon knows firsthand, being a member whose electorate is in the Northern Territory, the importance of border control and of integrity of borders and just how difficult that task is. One needs to have only a cursory understanding of the vastness of the Australian continent, with its 20,000 kilometres of coastline mostly uninhabited apart from the eastern seaboard and parts of Western Australia. We see tragedy when people try to illegally come to this country and perish either en route or even after they have landed because they land in remote areas where there is nothing to sustain them and they die. It is a sad outcome of the people-smuggling trade. So it is important that we ensure every measure possible to prevent those things happening.

This bill goes to a whole raft of amendments and changes to enhance the integrity of our borders, and I think the fact that it is widely supported—it is supported on both sides and it is certainly supported by industry and people who represent people who work in that industry and in Customs—is a good sign that this bill takes us down the right path. We ought to be satisfied about that position.

The bill deals with a number of matters, particularly in schedule 1, ‘Arrival report and reports of stores and prohibited goods’. What that particular schedule does is to exclude Saturdays from the time frame for reporting the arrival of ships and reporting stores. This amendment was part of consultations with industry—with the sector—who said that this would make proceedings and processes more effective and efficient. So those changes are made in this amendment.

Schedule 2 looks specifically at the requirement for infringement notices issued by Customs to state the legal effect of that notice. It is a tidying up, as it were, to make sure that it is clearly understood exactly what is required when those notices are given. Again, it is important to make sure that those practices have proper information and notification. This was a recommendation of the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, so again the government are following through on key recommendations, ensuring that what we do in this place is reflective of consultations we have had with the broader community and also with the wishes of this parliament.

Schedule 3 looks particularly at cargo reports and provides an exception to the cargo reporting offence if the report is made within the period required before the actual arrival time of a ship or aircraft. Again, this came about through consultations with the sector and industry representatives and it makes for a more streamlined reporting process and mechanisms, and provides for efficiency in the work of Customs officials.

There is an issue that has probably been talked about over dinner and at barbecues by a lot of people: the case of missing goods and goods delivered without authority. Just what does happen to all those goods that come in and sit on wharfs, docks and in containers, and from time to time may or may not disappear? The amendment in schedule 4 deals specifically with what tends to happen with goods and inserts a new offence of failing to keep proper records with respect to certain goods that either are unauthorised or have been delivered without authority. It tries to deal with proper recovery and the ascertain that there is proper record keeping, and that is the right thing to do. There ought to be proper record keeping, and we ought to ensure that what lands on our shores, if it is landed without authority, does not just disappear into the hands of other people to do with as they will.

Schedule 5 deals particularly with the boarding powers and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This is really about the aligning of requirements that we have in terms of boarding powers with other Commonwealth legislation and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It removes the requirement to request to board, so it realigns our laws to make sure that there is a practical mechanism for access. As you can understand, Mr Deputy Speaker, in trying to allow for recovery and dealing with complex matters out at sea, there need to be substantial powers for what our officers can carry out, and this particular schedule provides those. It makes a number of technical amendments and clarifies the requirements of powers to remain consistent with UNCLOS. It also enhances the power to board a ship in safety zones around Australia, and it provides a current power to board ships without nationality, which can be exercised in any area outside the territorial sea of another country. It extends the definition of ‘commander’ to include a warrant officer or non-commissioned officer of the Australian Defence Force. So it is a tidying up and a sensible approach to making sure that the powers that we give to our own officials are satisfactory in ensuring that they can carry out their duties to the full in a safe manner.

There is also the issue of impending arrival reports for pleasure craft and inserting a new time frame. There is nothing controversial about that, but obviously it needs to be properly dealt with, and it is within these amendments. There is an area which may raise some controversy with some but is supported on all sides, and that is clarifying the power that officials have in using reasonable force. There is no doubt that there are circumstances in which reasonable force is required, and our officials should be properly protected and empowered to use reasonable and necessary force, including the use of devices which are designed to stop or impede a ship. So that is also accounted for.

There are a whole range of amendments in each of the schedules, including the power to request aircraft to land. This ensures that officials have the authority and power to request, in a proper manner, that aircraft land in certain circumstances—aircraft that are suspected of carrying goods, drug trafficking, people trafficking or whatever else they might be doing. This legislation also deals with powers of arrest and warrants; Commonwealth property in Customs places; the power to moor Customs vessels in certain places, facilitating the boarding of vessels entering places other than ports or airports; and the right of access for patrols. So it clarifies a whole range of powers on access, ability to board and the capacity of our Customs officials to have proper search and seizure warrant facilities. This will provide proper and effective powers to those whom we give the responsibility for our border control, our Customs control and, in the end, the safety of Australian citizens as well as our borders. This is a good bill and it is supported on both sides of the House. I commend the bill to the House.

See this speech in context