Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Customs Amendment (Enhanced Border Controls and Other Measures) Bill 2008. In doing so, can I remark on the interesting contribution which has just been made by the member for Farrer. It is a contribution which, in essence, sought to explain how, in her view, the Rudd government has diminished border protection since it has been in power. She then detailed, in support of this legislation, a whole lot of provisions which actually increase the powers of Customs officers and improve the environment in which our Customs activities are undertaken. The dexterity displayed in that logical backflip is absolutely spectacular.

This bill seeks to modernise, update and improve the powers of Customs officers and to provide for much better legislative backing for the work of Customs in what is a dynamic and changing environment. The Customs Act 1901 was the sixth act of parliament put through this House. It was the sixth act of parliament in our nation and it came into force on 4 October 1901. That speaks to the fact that Customs has been an activity of government throughout the entirety of our history. Certainly the Customs task in 1901 was very different from what we face in 2009. Sea transport in 1901 was almost entirely by coal-powered ships. Diesel was not to come into play until 1910, and the first custom-built container ship was not launched until 1951. Indeed, containerised shipping really did not take off until the 1980s. We now live in a world where, in terms of non-bulk goods carried by ships, 90 per cent of goods are carried in container ships.

If you look at air transport, the position is even more stark. Of course, on 4 October 1901 there had not yet been a powered flight. That was not to occur until the Wright brothers’ flight in 1903. The first commercial flight occurred in the United States in 1909, the first air freight flight did not occur until 1925, and the first international commercial jet service did not occur until 1958. Nowadays, of course, airline services and, indeed, jet air cargo are a way of life. If you look at the volume of trade generally in the second half of the 20th century, the increase in the trade of manufactured goods increased 45-fold. So we live in a very different world to that of 1901.

I took the House through that potted time line to demonstrate the fact that, whilst this is an activity of government, and has been so from the outset of our nation, this is legislation which needs to be constantly updated because of the rapidly changing world in which we live when it comes to trade and cargo coming in and going out of our country. This bill seeks to do exactly that: to modernise and update the legislative backing of Customs activities in this country and increase the power of Customs officials.

There are 17 sets of measures contained in this bill, and they are contained in 17 schedules to the bill. I do not intend to take the House through each of those, but I do want to go through a sample of them to give a flavour of the kinds of improvements that are being made in the legislation around Customs activities. There are a series of improvements when it comes to increasing the powers of Customs officials to board ships and increasing the powers of Customs officials when it comes to the making of arrests. This is done to make these powers more consistent with other Commonwealth legislation, but it also makes it more consistent with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. For example, schedule 5 of the bill improves the boarding powers of Customs officials. It removes the need to have a request to board a vessel by a Customs official. Indeed, it puts in place an obligation on the master of the vessel being boarded to facilitate the boarding by that Customs official. That is much more consistent with existing Commonwealth legislation, and it does bring it into line with the provisions contained in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Schedule 5 also provides for enhanced powers by Customs officials to board ships which are in safety zones that surround Australian resources and sea installations. It improves the ability of Customs officials to board ships without a nationality. Indeed, it allows the boarding of ships without a nationality to occur anywhere on the high seas, with the exception of in another country’s waters. It expands the definition of the commander of a ship to include a warrant officer or a non-commissioned officer. Often we now see a situation where an inflatable craft which is part of the mother ship, if you like, going towards a vessel and the commander of the mother ship may not be on that inflatable craft, but a warrant officer or a non-commissioned officer is on that craft. This bill gives that officer the powers needed when boarding the vessel that it is approaching.

In schedule 7 there is an alteration to the current powers which are in place to use reasonable force when boarding a ship to include the use of a device which may impede or stop the ship. Schedule 10 increases the powers of arrest for Customs officers so that those powers are consistent with those contained in the Crimes Act and, in particular, allow Customs officers to arrest where there is the intentional moving, altering or interfering with goods that are subject to Customs control. Schedule 14 provides a requirement on a port or a port facility operator to facilitate a Customs official boarding a ship when that ship is in port.

There are a number of provisions which deal with the reporting time frames for vessels entering our country. Schedule 1 applies to commercial vessels entering Australian waters. Schedule 6 deals with differing reporting times for pleasure craft entering Australian waters. There are new powers to request an aircraft to land. There are increased powers for Customs to request aeroplanes to land where there is a suspicion that those planes are carrying goods relating to a terrorist act or where they are carrying goods which are likely to prejudice Australia’s defence or security or, indeed, international peace or security.

There are provisions which deal with, if you like, unaccounted goods. Schedule 9 increases the ability of Customs officials to seize, without warrant, goods which are on a ship or aircraft which are not listed and are not claimed as personal baggage of somebody on that ship or aircraft or are not in some other way accounted for. It also deals with what would be prohibited goods being imported into this country where those goods form part of the personal effects of a flight crew coming into this country. In those circumstances, it allows for those goods to be locked on board the plane while the plane is on the ground or for those goods to be taken into custody until the plane leaves and until the flight crew leaves. So that is a sample of the provisions contained in this bill, which, as you can see, increase the powers of Customs officers, improve the legislative framework in which Customs activities are undertaken and very much keep the Customs Act up to date.

As I said at the outset, customs functions have been an activity undertaken by government from the very beginning of our nation—indeed an activity undertaken by our federal government. In that sense it is something with which we have a long history and with which we are very familiar. But world trade, the movement of goods between countries, is dramatically different now to what it was a hundred years ago. It is an area of public policy where the landscape changes very rapidly, so periodic amendments of this bill to keep it up to speed with the changing and dynamic world in which Customs officers operate are very important, and that is what this bill seeks to do. I commend this bill to the House.

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