Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Customs Amendment (Enhanced Border Controls and Other Measures) Bill 2008. This bill will ensure the amendment of the Customs Act 1901, which I will refer to as the Customs Act. It is absolutely vital that, as a continent surrounded by sea, Australia is equipped with the best ways and means of protecting itself against the illegal movement of cargo, people and prohibited items. The key agency for this protection is the Australian Customs Service, which, in December 2008, the Prime Minister announced the renaming of, as well as an enhancement of the agency’s capabilities. Its new name, the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, recognises our important border protection responsibilities, including the country’s new role in ensuring a coordinated response to the threat to our borders of maritime people-smuggling.

We are all aware of Australia’s vast coastline, especially those of us whose electorates make up part of that coastline. Smugglers or any other persons with criminal intentions who use the sea as a means of conducting their illegal activities will try anything and use any area of Australia’s coast to attempt their criminal actions. We must always be aware that exposure to the ocean can also mean exposure to these potential illegal activities at any time of the day or night. That is why we must ensure that the key agency engaged in overseeing our coastline is properly empowered to enforce the law.

At the start of this decade, in fact exactly nine years ago, Customs officers and federal agents intercepted an estimated half a tonne of cocaine in a raid on a yacht in the early hours of the morning at Patonga on the New South Wales Central Coast, adjacent to my electorate. It was to that date Australia’s largest ever haul of the drug from a yacht off the New South Wales coast. This was more than twice the size of the previous largest haul. Seven people were arrested and the two vessels seized as part of this 18-month intelligence driven operation. The operation was significant not only for the size of the haul but also for its success in disrupting an organised criminal syndicate. It shows that criminals will use any means and any destination, whether it be a quiet seaside hamlet such as Patonga or a bustling city port, to try to conduct their illegal activities.

The enhanced Australian Customs and Border Protection Service is set to meet the complex border security challenges of the future by providing unified control and direction and a single point of accountability. The planning framework aims to bring together all agencies involved in water management in an attempt to ensure consistent and complementary functions. Additional capabilities given to Customs and Border Protection under the new arrangements include analysing and coordinating the gathering of intelligence, coordinating surveillance and on-water response, and engaging internationally to deter maritime people smugglers. The transition of capability will involve the transfer of some responsibilities, functions and resources from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

Let us have a brief look at what Customs is and what it does. The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service manages the security and integrity of Australia’s borders. It works closely with other government and international agencies, in particular the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and the Department of Defence, to deter and detain unlawful movements of goods and people across the border. The agency is a national organisation, employing more than 5,500 people in Australia and overseas, with its central office here in Canberra. It has a fleet of ocean-going patrol vessels and contracts with two aerial surveillance providers for civil maritime surveillance and response. Protecting the Australian community through the interception of illegal drugs and firearms is a high priority, and sophisticated techniques are used to target high-risk aircraft, vessels, cargo, postal items and travellers. This includes intelligence analysis, computer based analysis, detector dogs and various other technologies.

The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service is headed by a chief executive officer, with the support of three deputy CEOs. The service operates nationally through three programs: Passenger and Trade Facilitation, Border Enforcement and Corporate Operations. Customs plays an important role in protecting Australia’s borders from the entry of illegal and harmful goods and unauthorised people. Naturally, it must carry out this role while not impeding the legitimate movement of people and goods across the borders. Customs contributes to the whole-of-government approach to secure Australia from potential terrorist threats. Cargo intervention, passenger screening and first-port boarding rates are at an all-time high. International and interagency cooperation continues to play a vital role in protecting our borders.

Customs remains focused on intercepting illicit drugs and other items potentially harmful to the community. One of its main priorities this year will be to continue to crack down on illegal performance-enhancing and image-enhancing drugs. Throughout 2008, Customs successfully prosecuted 68 cases and achieved a total of 229 convictions against smugglers of performance-enhancing and image-enhancing drugs. Since January, Australian courts have awarded nearly $200,000 in fines and penalties against smugglers of such substances and awarded more than $180,000 in legal and other costs. Customs has stopped attempts to traffic the drugs disguised in a variety of ways, including as sachets of aromatherapy and massage oils and in commercially sealed tins of nuts.

Customs also contributes to the whole-of-government effort to protect Australia’s waters through its part in the Border Protection Command. The command is a Customs and Defence partnership to ensure that any threat to Australia’s maritime assets and coastline can be quickly detected and defeated. Illegal foreign fishing in Australian waters also poses a threat to our borders. Customs is at the front line of Australia’s efforts to combat illegal foreign fishing in the northern and southern oceans. Customs is leading the way in the breeding and training of dogs to detect drugs and other prohibited items, including explosives, firearms and dangerous chemicals. Customs is committed to continuous improvement in its people, systems and technology to ensure that it is well placed to meet the emerging challenges, including a constantly changing security and regulatory environment.

The authority of Customs stems principally from the Australian Constitution, which provides for the levying of customs duties and for laws concerning trade and commerce. The organisation was established in its present form by the Customs Administration Act 1985. Customs is an agency under the Attorney-General’s portfolio and is responsible to the Minister for Home Affairs.

The bill I am speaking to will do a number of things. Besides giving Customs officers and the service as a whole more powers to help them better conduct their work in protecting the Australian coastline, it will also streamline the system, making it more efficient in areas such as reporting requirements. For instance, this bill will amend the reporting requirements in schedule 1 of the Customs Act to exclude Saturdays from the time frame for reporting the arrivals of ships, stores and prohibited goods. It will, under schedule 2, insert an additional matter that must be stated in an infringement notice. This will require that infringement notices issued by Customs state the legal effect of the notice. In practice, Customs already includes this information in infringement notices. The amendment reflects a recommendation of the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs.

Schedule 3 will provide for an exception to the offence of failing to make a cargo report. In more detail, this provides an exception to the cargo-reporting offence if the report is made within the period required before the actual time of arrival of the ship or aircraft. This amendment was requested by an industry representative. Under schedule 4, the bill will insert new provisions, including offences dealing with missing goods and goods delivered into home consumption without authority. There will be a new offence of failing to keep safe goods which are subject to the control of Customs or failing to account for such goods to the satisfaction of a collector of Customs if required to do so. While there are provisions allowing for the recovery of duty in relation to missing goods, these amendments will allow Customs to deal with non-dutiable goods that are under Customs control and that are not kept safely or cannot be accounted for.

This bill will harmonise the boarding powers with the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, under schedule 5. This aligns the requirements of Customs boarding powers with other Commonwealth legislation and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea by removing the requirement for a request to board to be made prior to a Customs officer exercising the relevant boarding powers contained within the Customs Act and placing a requirement on the master of the targeted vessel to facilitate, by all reasonable means, the boarding. It also makes technical amendments to clarify the requirement for powers to be exercised consistently with the convention. It enhances the power to board a ship in the safety zones around Australia’s resources and sea installations. Schedule 5 also provides that the current power to board ships without nationality can be exercised in any area outside of the territorial sea of another country and it extends the definition of commander so that it also includes a warrant officer, or a non-commissioned officer, of the Australian Defence Force to recognise that these officers may be in charge of the vessel—for example, an inflatable launched from a much larger Commonwealth ship from which the boarding occurs.

Schedule 6 allows for the amendment of the impending arrival reporting requirements in relation to pleasure craft, by way of inserting new time frames for reporting the impending arrival of such craft. Schedule 7 clarifies the types of devices that can be used to enable the boarding of a ship that has been the subject of a hot pursuit. This includes clarifying that the current power to use reasonable force as a means to enable the boarding of a chased ship encompasses the use of devices designed to stop or impede a ship. Under schedule 8, there will be inserted a new circumstance under which the commander of a Commonwealth aircraft can request the pilot of another aircraft to land. This strengthens the ability of Customs to request an aircraft to land to include circumstances where it is suspected that the aircraft is carrying goods that are related to a terrorist act or are likely to prejudice Australia’s defence or security or international peace and security.

Schedule 9 of the bill extends the regime for the storage or taking into custody of prohibited weapons to all prohibited imports and extends the power to seize goods without a warrant to goods on board a ship that are unaccounted for. This allows Customs officers to seize, without warrant, goods that are located on board a ship or aircraft and are not listed in part of the cargo report, not claimed as baggage belonging to the crew or passengers or otherwise accounted for. Also, all items on board a ship or aircraft that has arrived in Australia that are either stores or personal effects of the crew, and would be considered a prohibited import if imported into Australia, will now be required to be either locked on board the ship or aircraft or taken into custody by Customs until the ship or aircraft departs Australia.

Under schedule 10, the bill inserts a regime supporting the current power of arrest, consistent with the Crimes Act 1914. Specifically, this modernises Customs arrest powers to ensure consistency with the Crimes Act and allows Customs officers to arrest persons suspected of intentionally moving, altering or interfering with goods that are subject to Customs control. Schedule 11 makes a technical amendment to the matters that must be included in a search or seizure warrant. It removes the requirement for copies of warrants to be marked with the seal of the relevant court to reflect current court practices.

Under schedule 12, a new offence is inserted for intentionally obstructing or interfering with the operation of Commonwealth equipment located at Customs places. There will be an extension of the power to moor a Customs vessel to man-made structures under schedule 13. This clarifies the current power to moor Customs vessels by providing certainty that these powers extend to mooring on man-made structures. Schedule 14 allows for the extension of the obligation to assist Customs officers to board a ship to the owner or operator of a port or port facility. This introduces a new requirement for port and port facility operators to facilitate, by any reasonable means, the boarding of a vessel that is located in port. Schedule 15 updates the wording in section 58 of the Customs Act, covering the entering of places other than ports or airports, by modernising the language. Schedule 16 covers the right of access for patrols. The circumstances will be extended under which Customs officers may enter and remain in certain areas. It clarifies the current powers to patrol areas by providing certainty that these powers extend to patrolling man-made structures and such areas. The power to patrol areas will also be extended to provide a right of access through properties that are located adjacent to those where Customs is required to perform its duties and functions.

Finally, under schedule 17, the bill extends the matters that can be authorised in a search warrant or a seizure warrant and the powers that can be exercised by Customs officers and persons assisting when executing a warrant. It requires a person at premises that are subject of a warrant issued under either section 199, section 203 or section 203DA to provide their name and address when requested to do so—an offence of failing to comply with this requirement. It allows a search warrant to also authorise the frisk or ordinary search of a person at or near the warrant premises if the executing officer or person assisting has reasonable grounds to suspect that the person has anything that would present a danger to a person or that could be used to assist a person to escape from custody in his or her possession.

In summary, the Customs Amendment (Enhanced Border Controls and Other Measures) Bill 2008 contains amendments to the Customs Act 1901 that have been developed in consultation with other Commonwealth agencies and industry. The measures are designed to ensure that Customs can continue to effectively perform its operational law enforcement and regulatory roles and functions in an increasingly complex and dynamic environment. This is an important piece of legislation which helps to ensure that Australia’s borders are as safe as they can be. It modernises the law to ensure that it is streamlined and operates as effectively as possible. It is a bill that I commend to the House.

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