Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I support the passage of these three bills, the Customs Depot Licensing Charges Amendment Bill 2015, the Import Processing Charges Amendment Bill 2015 and the Customs Amendment (Fees and Charges) Bill 2015. This package of bills, which relate primarily to customs processes and charges associated with trade related activity, are due to commence on 1 January 2016. The changes contained within these bills were included in the 2015-16 budget as part of the response to the joint review of border fees, charges and taxes, commonly known as 'the fees review', undertaken by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, Customs and the Department of Agriculture and involving consultation with interested stakeholders.

The fees review focused on identifying where border-charging arrangements could be improved to better support future border operations and outcomes for industry. This was done with a view to ensuring that, as far as possible, full costs were recovered for the operation and administration of these schemes by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. The fees review considered changes to current charges, fees and taxes, as well as new approaches to charging in the future. It covered charges levied by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and some import related fees and charges applied by the Department of Agriculture. The fees review covered current major charging arrangements at the border, including import-processing and passenger movement charges levied by Australian Customs and Border Protection; import related fees and charges recovered by the Department of Agriculture, such as full import declaration charges, container charges and registration fees; visa application charges administered by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection; and current and future cost-recovery-based charging for services, particularly those resulting from industry demand factors. The changes contained within the Customs Depot Licensing Charges Amendment Bill, the Import Processing Charges Amendment Bill and the Customs Amendment (Fees and Charges) Bill are designed to generate $107.6 million over the forward estimates.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection processes and assesses applications, issues licences and manages the compliance framework for warehouse and depot licence holders and for customs brokers. Cost recovery charges are imposed on individuals and businesses holding or applying for these licences. All consignments imported into Australia are assessed by the department to ensure that Australian government requirements are met, and importers are required to make an import declaration for air, sea and post consignments valued above $1,000 and air and sea consignments valued at $1,000 or less.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection undertakes a number of activities on import declarations to ensure that the border and community protection risks are managed appropriately. These activities include cargo examinations and inspections; processing of import declarations and documents receipting; design and development of profiles and targeted compliance activities; analysis of intelligence leading to strategic, operational or tactical services in relation to import processing; investigation and prosecution of serious breaches of legislation; provision of advice to industry on the import and export environment; and determination of risks associated with transactions, threats and border controls.

Import processing charges, or IPCs, are generally paid with other mandatory government charges such as import duties or the goods and services tax. Import declarations are lodged within the integrated cargo system and identified charges attributable to the department and Agriculture are also collected through the system. The agricultural proportion of the charges is remitted to the Department of Agriculture.

The mechanism for imposing the various fees and charges also differs across the licensing categories. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection undertakes a number of activities in relation to licence application processing and ongoing compliance monitoring in licensed brokers and establishments. These include: desktop assessments of applications; site inspections of warehouse and depot facilities; interviews with prospective broker licence applicants; the granting of licences; renewal processing and invoicing; an ongoing compliance program of site visits for warehouses and depots; ongoing monitoring for broker licensing and corporate support and infrastructure in support of licensing staff systems and processes; and, of course, fit-and-proper person checks.

Although licensing fees were originally imposed to recover the full cost of administering the licensing activities, the fees review identified a shortfall in the recovery of costs within some programs amounting to approximately 30 per cent of customs broker charges. Licensing fees have remained fairly static since their introduction in 1997, which has resulted in under-recovery of costs and revenue associated with the operation and administration of these particular charges and this scheme by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. In 2013-14, the department received $242.4 million in revenue through import processing charges, which was approximately $10.3 million less than the $252.7 million in expenses allocated to IPC related activities. This is a classic example of the under-recovery of costs associated with some of these charges.

The Customs Amendment (Fees and Charges) Bill and the Customs Depot Licensing Charges Amendment Bill will consolidate all licensing charges into a single act, with the aim of simplifying the legislation, and will introduce new charges to better align the changes and the charges with cost-recovery guidelines. The new charges include a warehouse licensing application fee of $3,000 up to a maximum of $4½ thousand; a warehouse licence variation charge of $300 up to a maximum of $450; and a customs broker licence application charge of between $130 and $195 for individuals and between $1,300 and $1,950 for businesses. This is aimed at, hopefully, reducing the cost burden of licensing programs and ensuring applicants are better prepared prior to applying for a licence.

The Customs Amendment (Fees and Charges) Bill will introduce a small fee increase for an import declaration of imported goods and the Customs Depot Licensing Charges Amendment Bill will increase the price of existing warehouse and custom broker and licensing charges in line with cost-recovery guidelines. The Import Processing Charges Amendment Bill will make three major changes. The first is to broaden the cost base for import and warehouse declaration charges by recovering the cost of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection's cargo and trade related reform initiatives. The second is to simplify the charging arrangements for sea cargo, air cargo and postal import and warehouse declarations by imposing the same charge regardless of the method of importation. The final change is to introduce a standard higher fee for documentary import and warehouse declarations, recognising the additional work required to process documentary declarations.

In conclusion, Labor support this package and associated changes, which are in line with our continued commitment to maintaining a responsive, efficient and robust customs authority and to ensure that government cost-recovery guidelines are being met in the administration and operation of these important schemes by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

See this speech in context