Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Customs Amendment (Enhanced Border Controls and Other Measures) Bill 2008. The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service plays a vital role in preventing the illegal movement of people and harmful goods across Australia’s borders. Customs protects the Australian community through the interception of illegal drugs and firearms, which are a high priority. Sophisticated techniques are used by Customs to target high-risk aircraft, vessels, cargo, postal items and travellers. This includes intelligence analysis, computer based analysis, detector dogs and various other technologies which are improving all the time.

On 4 December 2008, Prime Minister Rudd announced the renaming of the Australian Customs Service to the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. Whilst the purpose of the new name is to recognise the important border protection responsibilities that Customs has, including its revamped role in protecting our maritime borders, it is a shame that the Rudd Labor government cannot couple this with the funding that Customs so badly needs. Additional capabilities have been given to the Customs and Border Protection Service under the new arrangement, including analysing and coordinating the gathering of intelligence, coordinating surveillance and on-water response and engaging internationally to deter maritime people smugglers.

But how can Customs possibly absorb these new functions when their funding has been drastically cut by the Rudd government? The Rudd Labor government’s $51.5 million in budget cuts to the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, in real terms, has significantly hampered the ability of Customs to respond to the multitude of security threats that land on Australia’s borders. Customs does not only protect Australian borders from illegal boat arrivals. In conjunction with several other tasks, Customs is responsible for overseeing mass volumes of imports and exports, along with detecting illicit drugs and prohibited imports to ensure that they do not get through the gate.

Customs officers are the front line in protecting our borders from these threats, and the Rudd Labor government took this for granted when they recklessly slashed funds to our premier border protection agency. Our border protection arrangements have deteriorated significantly since the election of the Rudd Labor government, I believe. It is obvious that border protection is not a priority, and Mr Rudd and Labor could well be setting Australia up for a border security disaster. Rather than do something meaningful, Mr Rudd, the eternal bureaucrat, chooses to rename and reshuffle agencies in an attempt to be seen to be doing something about the increasing numbers of people smugglers who are testing the waters under this new Labor government.

This bill amends the Customs Act 1901 to enhance Australia’s border security protection measures. In particular, the bill aims to strengthen the law enforcement and regulatory powers of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, both by introducing new powers in relation to offshore maritime and sea port environments and by ensuring that existing powers are consistent with other Commonwealth legislation, such as the Crimes Act 1914. The bill contains several amendments which, while not necessarily fitting cohesively together, can be grouped into four main categories. I will briefly touch on a couple of the key amendments in each of the four categories.

The first relates to industry suggestions and improvements. I commend the activity that Customs has undertaken in listening to industry via a discussion process, adopting their suggestions, advocating for these improvements and now legislating them. I will touch on schedule 3 of the bill, which deals with the exception to the offence of failing to make a cargo report. Currently, cargo reports for ships have to be made at least 48 hours before the ship arrives in port. Cargo reports for aircraft must be made at least two hours before the estimated time of arrival of the aircraft. Shorter periods apply for short journeys. An offence is committed and is chased most appropriately if the cargo report is late. In some circumstances, the estimated time of arrival of a ship or aircraft is earlier than it actually does arrive. Following discussions with industry, it was agreed that Customs would not prosecute or serve infringement notices in relation to reports that are made at least 48 hours for ships and two hours for aircraft before the actual time of arrival of the ship or aircraft. The amendment gives legislative effect to that agreement. While a couple of other suggestions have been adopted from industry ideas, I do not think there is any need to go into further detail.

The second category of amendments concerns consistency with international law and other Commonwealth legislation. I think the key amendment here deals with the harmonisation of boarding powers. Currently, the commander of a ship or aircraft must request to board another ship before boarding and other powers can be exercised. A request has to be formally made but, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, there is actually no requirement that such a request be made before a ship can be boarded except in the case of the commencement of a hot pursuit of a ship. Leaving aside the hot pursuit, schedule 5 proposes to remove the requirement to make a request to board except when a ship is going to be chased. This is consistent with other similar Commonwealth legislation and makes perfect sense when you consider the role of Customs on the high seas and the speed with which they need to go about their business boarding sometimes unfriendly vessels.

The third category of amendments involves strengthening the powers of Customs to provide alignment with community expectations and to recognise the environments in which Customs operate. There was a key amendment here around missing goods. Currently, the Customs Act requires people who deal with goods for which duty is charged and which are subject to the control of Customs to keep them safely in account for if and when they are requested. If these obligations are not satisfied then Customs can demand the payment of an amount equal to the duty payable on those goods. In other words, the goods have to be stored, managed and moved appropriately. The current provisions do not cover non-dutiable goods that are subject to the control of Customs. While no duty applies to these goods, the goods still need to be accounted for, as they might be prohibited goods such as weapons. The amendments in schedule 4 create a new offence of failing to keep goods that are subject to the control of Customs safely or failing to account for such goods to the satisfaction of a collector of customs if required to do so. I think this puts an appropriate onus on industry to manage, as I said, the storage and transportation of goods for which duty is payable or non-dutiable goods that are subject to the control of Customs.

The other item under this category which is worth noting is schedule 9, dealing with prohibited items on board a ship or aircraft. Currently, if when searching ships Customs officers come across goods that, if they were imported into Australia, would be prohibited and should and can be seized by Customs, the goods are not part of the cargo and often no crew will claim the goods, in these cases, because of the common-law requirements for invitation, the goods are taken not to be imported.

This amendment proposes two alternatives to deal with such a situation, depending on whether they are claimed or not. First, Customs officers will be able to seize, without warrant, goods that are located on board a ship or aircraft and which are not listed in part of the cargo report, not claimed as baggage or are otherwise accounted for. Second, all items on board a ship or aircraft that has arrived in Australia that are either stores or personal effects of the crew, and which would be considered a prohibited import if they were imported into Australia, must now be locked on board the ship or aircraft, or taken into custody by Customs, until the ship or aircraft departs Australia. This avoids the issue of Customs officers leaving the goods, returning with a warrant, and finding that they have disappeared into thin air.

The fourth category of amendments is to clarify Customs existing powers. One of the amendments that is, I think, worth noting is the power to moor. Section 194 of the Customs Act states that a Customs vessel may be moored ‘upon any part of the coast, or the shores, banks or beaches of any port, bay, harbour, lake or river’. This schedule proposes to allow Customs vessels to be moored to any man-made structure at, or in, any of the natural features already covered by this section. So, as a matter of general practice, the officer in charge of a Customs vessel will look, of course, to consult with, or obtain the assistance of, the owner of the man-made structure. We need to recognise that many Australian ports that deal with the export of our resources are now privately owned, particularly in the north. So, for example, Customs would consult on the location of other vessels or potential hazards within a port, or those associated with structures, or whether the proposed mooring is able to support the load of the relevant Customs vessel and is appropriate and safe et cetera. Whilst Customs do work closely in conjunction with the managers of the port, I do agree that they need to have the power to moor when and where they are required, depending on the operation in which they are involved, and I am satisfied that their consultation process is sensible, takes into account the economic life of the port and does not place an undue burden on those who manage it. I know that they will continue to approach their activities in that spirit.

I would like to conclude by reminding the House of the coalition’s strong record on border security. In government, we created a single body in 2005—the Border Protection Command—to coordinate the planning, surveillance, intelligence and deployments of Coastwatch and the Australian Defence Force. It added teeth to border protection with approximately 450 personnel, improved resources and newer, tougher rules of engagement. The Border Protection Command is Australia’s lead organisation for security response in Australia’s maritime domain and, in its reinvented role under the changes that I alluded to by the government at the end of last year, it will still maintain that role.

When in government, the coalition built strong relationships with neighbouring countries on the need for action to stop people-smuggling. Since June 2006, Australian authorities have helped Indonesia to intercept and detain 350 people who were illegally attempting to travel to Australia. The coalition government effectively deterred illegal immigration by legislating to allow offshore processing, maintaining mandatory detention and excising from our migration zone those territories off our coast that were magnets for people-smuggling. This uncompromising approach to border protection does work. In recent years, the traffic of illegal people-smuggling vessels has all but stopped. People-smuggling is a major threat to Australia’s security, as there are serious security and criminal concerns when people arriving in Australia are not properly identified or are not prepared to properly identify themselves. There are major quarantine and health risks. Processing illegal immigrants creates considerable logistical problems. It also contravenes Australia’s sovereignty, giving us less control over our borders.

The Rudd Labor government’s changed immigration laws relating to people-smuggling have put pressure on the already overstretched Customs resources, as well as on the resources of the Australian Federal Police. Since August 2008, as my colleague the shadow minister for immigration, the member for Murray, has reminded the House on many occasions, there have been eight boats and 199 illegal boat arrivals, not including those boats that were heading towards Australia but were intercepted by the Indonesians. If those boats were included, that would total 14 illegal boats destined for Australia.

The coalition also has a strong stance on illegal foreign fishing, and Customs is responsible for the prevention of incursions by illegal foreign fishers in the Australian exclusive economic zone. As mentioned in Customs’ annual report 2007-08, the coalition government in the 2007 budget gave Customs additional funding of $197 million over four years to counter the increased number of illegal foreign fishing vessels entering Australia’s northern waters. The coalition’s response to the threat was based on two streams of activity: the heightened surveillance enforcement in Australia’s maritime zones, supported by an increased capacity to detain and process additional illegal fishers onshore and destroy their vessels, and efforts in Indonesia to support economic development and alternative livelihoods for fishing communities combined with in-country programs to highlight the consequences of illegal activity in Australia’s waters. From mid-2006 there was a marked reduction in sightings of foreign fishing vessels in Australian waters. The turnaround was due to the successful initiatives of the coalition government, including the deployment of Customs’ contracted vessel, Triton, which can tow multiple apprehended fishing boats and accommodate up to 30 detained persons and up to 30 officials, including armed Customs maritime enforcement officers, fisheries officers and specialised equipment operators.

In conclusion, our position on this bill is that we do support the changes recommended in order to strengthen the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. These changes do not give Customs additional powers but they do clarify the powers they already have. They streamline their operations and, ultimately, are designed to ensure the proper functioning of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, particularly in their role in border control. Many of the proposed amendments do no more than align the Customs Act with the provisions in other Commonwealth legislation, particularly the Crimes Act and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which Australia is a party. Some of these powers, while they do not exist specifically in the Customs Act at present, are actually available to Customs officers. While we support the bill, the coalition believes that the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service does need to be adequately funded along with other key agencies, particularly the Australian Federal Police, and it is a shame that Mr Rudd and Labor do not seem to view Australia’s national security as a priority.

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The measures contained in the Customs Amendment (Enhanced Border Controls and Other Measures) Bill 2008 are designed to ensure that the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service can continue to effectively perform its operational law enforcement and regulatory roles and functions in what is an increasingly complex and dynamic environment. Customs plays a vital role in preventing the illegal movement of people and harmful goods across Australia’s borders. The border extends to Australia’s exclusive economic zone, where Customs plays a key role in addressing threats to the maritime environment through its contribution to our border protection command. The measures contained in this bill, which have been developed in consultation with other Commonwealth agencies and industry, are designed to ensure that Customs can continue to effectively perform its law enforcement and regulatory functions.

I spent 12 months living and working on Thursday Island with the military and went on a lot of joint operations with Customs in the Torres Strait up in the exclusive economic zone. So I know firsthand what Customs does in protecting our vital fishing waters from overfishing and indeed from people-smuggling, gun-smuggling and drug-smuggling operations as well. Having spent 12 years in the military, I also spent a lot of time in the north working with our military to keep our northern shores safe. Having spent time on our Armidale patrol boats with the defence committee, I have seen firsthand the vital role Defence plays in keeping our borders safe. The environment in the north where Defence operates is becoming increasingly complex. Illegal fishing boats and boats conducting other activities are now arming themselves more and more—using sharpened stakes and pitchforks to prevent boarding. The degree of complexity in the environment of the north of Australia that Customs and Defence operate in is increasing.

The bill aims to clarify the current powers to patrol areas and to moor Customs vessels; provide that the present power to board ships without nationality can be exercised in any area outside of the territorial sea of another country; clarify that the present power to board vessels in the safety zones surrounding Australia’s offshore facilities relates to offences committed within those zones; clarify that the present power to use reasonable force as a means to enable the boarding of a pursued ship encompasses the use of devices designed to stop or impede a ship; require infringement notices issued by Customs to state the legal effect of the notice; and modernise the language. To strengthen Customs’ ability to effectively operate in the offshore maritime and sea port environments, the bill will align the requirements of Customs’ boarding powers with other Commonwealth legislation and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; place a requirement upon the master of any vessel that is to be boarded at sea to facilitate the boarding—a requirement that if one of our naval or Customs vessels seeks to board a ship then the master will come about and will allow the boarding to occur; introduce a new requirement for port and port facility operators to facilitate the boarding of a vessel that is located in a port and not to impede that boarding; modernise Customs’ arrest and warrant powers; create a new offence for intentionally obstructing or interfering with the operation of Commonwealth equipment located at Customs places; and remove the requirement for copies of warrants.

The bill will strengthen Customs’ ability 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. The bill will also protect Australia from goods which, if imported, would be prohibited goods. This will be achieved in two ways. Customs officers will be authorised to seize, without warrant, goods that are located onboard a ship or aircraft and are not listed in part of the cargo report, or not claimed as baggage belonging to the crew or passengers or otherwise accounted for. Likewise, all items onboard a ship or aircraft that has arrived in Australia that are either stores or personal effects of the crew and those on board, and would be considered a prohibited import if imported into Australia, will now be required to be either locked onboard the ship or aircraft or taken into custody by Customs until the ship or aircraft departs Australia.

Some may argue that some parts of this legislation seem draconian or indeed give powers to Customs that may invade the privacy of legal shipping or aircraft, but I remind the nation that Customs, and indeed our Defence Force in support of Customs, operate in very difficult, ill-defined and ambiguous circumstances. They are required to exercise judgment at every turn in what they do and how they operate. To provide powers for them to act in areas where they suspect and have information that may indicate that an act is related to terrorism or indeed may prejudice our Defence Force or security not only makes good sense but also ensures good protection of the nation. I commend the bill to the House.

Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Wilson Tuckey (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Customs Amendment (Enhanced Border Controls and Other Measures) Bill 2008 is quite comprehensive legislation. The member for Dobell quite adequately described it section by section. All of it has considerable merit, as it both simplifies the law where that is appropriate and to the convenience of industry and, at the same time, increases and empowers the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service in areas where that is necessary. My interest in this legislation is, of course, heightened by the fact that, as a minister responsible for fisheries some years ago, I had to authorise and maintain, despite some pressure from various corners, the hot pursuit of an illegal fishing boat—a pirate, if you like—called the South Tomi down in our southern oceans.

The South Tomi was fishing illegally down there, and was observed by our then patrol vessel, which, unfortunately, at that stage was unarmed. Whilst an arrest was performed, when the vessels took off to impound the fishing vessel in the port of Fremantle, it attempted to escape with its load of patagonian toothfish when it passed out of Australian territorial waters down there. I had the responsibility at that time to order our patrol vessel to continue. I became an expert in a short period of time on the requirements of hot pursuit, to which I think there are some minor changes in this legislation. In fact, we followed that vessel to the tip of South Africa. In the meantime, I had to convince the Department of Defence that they had to travel there and join with a highly cooperative South African defence force, who at every stage were very anxious to assist; they too had territorial waters down towards Antarctica and some islands where their fish stocks were being similarly plundered. Anyway, it all happened, and the Defence Force took that trip. With the assistance of the South African navy, we were able to arrest the vessel and bring it back to Fremantle as proposed. It is a very interesting coincidence that, at a later time, I attended in Geraldton to watch that very vessel sunk as a dive wreck, Geraldton being part of my electorate. I guess it was quite a fitting end to that very exciting venture.

Another incident was publicised later when Senator Macdonald was the minister for fisheries and, of course, resulted shortly after in the government deciding that their patrol vessels should carry ordnance, which, if it is used—of course, it should be; there is nothing more disgusting than the illegal exploitation of fish stocks around the world—is something of an incentive to the captain of a ship not to run away. On land, we can count heads of animals, and there is some chance of managing conservation; in the ocean, as discovered some years ago with the North Sea cod, it is different. They just went back one year with their supertrawlers and left none. That, of course, is a very important issue.

This legislation gives Customs the right to board a vessel without having to make what has been the customary request: ‘Can I come on board?’ Of course the fellow does not want you to come on board if he has illegal intentions! The fact that this legislation addresses that matter in a sensible way is to be applauded. It is interesting, of course, that—and I trust that it still applies—in dealing with illegal fishing folk in our northern waters particularly, we have had a rather foolish arrangement where these valuable assets, be they Customs or Navy vessels, having arrested a cockleshell of some Indonesian fishing community, were virtually obliged to tow it in to Darwin or Broome for the appropriate accommodation of the crew and destruction of the vessel. Of course, if you were a smart little fishing group, you sent down a decoy who got arrested and, while they were towing that into the port, you then rushed in and caught as many fish as you could. Not only did we therefore waste the valuable asset—the millions of dollars of vessel—in doing that mundane task; we also opened up the area to exploitation.

It was after my move to another portfolio as minister that my suggestion that we should have a vessel particularly designed to take over after an arrest and take the crew on board was taken up. My view was that they should destroy the vessel on the spot and not worry about towing it into town. They could create evidence with the appropriate video equipment properly tuned into GPS, with the time and everything. In fact, I think the vessel that now does this job—if it is still in existence—was described as a floating hotel. I did not think that was absolutely necessary. I had a much simpler vessel in mind. Whilst I never got into the international implications, my view was that when you had enough of these people on board you took them to the nearest Indonesian island and told them to get off. In fact, it is hugely expensive for the Australian taxpayer to accommodate these people who have illegally entered and illegally fished in our territory, putting at grave risk our fish stocks, which throughout Australia are very fragile. We have not got the currents, such as the Gulf Stream and that, which produce very large quantities of fish, so they have to be protected very carefully.

Where Customs finds itself in those roles, its efforts will be simplified and the crew will have better opportunities to do their jobs. They are good measures. I have a little concern, nevertheless, that in all of this, through the changed policies of the government, we have what I term illegal immigrants. Some say they are refugees. Each year, we as a nation take 30,000 refugees that legally apply, having moved to a nation where they are safe and having been assessed by the United Nations and notification having been made to interested countries. We have an arrangement where 30,000 people from the rest of the world are brought to Australia as refugees. I have never approved of the fact that somebody getting on a vessel and illegally travelling into Australian waters should get priority over those people. That is what we, as a government, made some very stern measures about. As Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government, I had significant involvement in the early stages of constructing the facilities for applicant refugees—I guess that is the best description—on Christmas Island.

I am disturbed to read how quickly such people now, under new government policy, are being admitted to the Australian mainland on release orders which virtually say, ‘If we can find you in due course, if we don’t think you’re a refugee, you’ll have to go back.’ The message that we tried to give to people—which virtually stopped this traffic—was that there was a very high chance they would go back. They would be accommodated outside the Australian mainland, where they would have access to extensive legal services and could live and build a family of two or three kids just by exploiting the legal processes. I am not sure how much technical equipment is on our Customs vessels, but it seems to me that we will shortly have vessels bringing in these refugees, who have chosen not to go through proper process and have paid very large sums of money and possibly put themselves at risk through the types of vessels in which they travel.

These vessels will be travelling with some sort of identification that works through a satellite so they are easy to find, because in the present environment there is no point whatsoever trying to hide from the Customs immigration authorities or the Navy; you want to be found as quickly as you can so they will take you over to Christmas Island and then send you back to Australia. That is the current situation; you have a transponder on board saying: ‘Please find me! Help! I don’t want to be on this boat too long, because I now know that, under new government policy, my chances of jumping the queue are excellent.’ I do not know how long that will proceed or how many Customs vessels or other such vessels we will need up there to deal with what would become a virtual flood. Why would you bother? Why, when the village or whoever can rake up the necessary bribes to get you to Indonesia and then onto a boat, would you go to another country and stay there in the conditions that apply in a lot of these refugee camps? You only have to hope you do not have to wait too long to get caught. That is not necessarily a measure here. It is all about arresting that boat, but the arrest has become a farce; it is no longer for the purpose of protecting our borders or maintaining with the United Nations our arrangements for how we process refugees.

We process them fairly. I believe only Canada exceeds our quota of legal refugees per capita. We have taken them from many parts of the world. On occasions it has been very controversial, as these people have found it difficult to assimilate within Australia, but we do it. I am not a critic of that. I am a critic of making it easier for a person who has not gone through proper process to queue-jump in these circumstances.

There are other measures in this bill which seem eminently sensible; as I said, many of them have been dealt with by the member for Dobell. I do not think it necessary for me to waste the time of the House repeating them in detail other than to say they are welcome. Of course border protection—from the importation of illegal goods and the containment of instruments such as guns, knives or whatever they might need to resist, for instance, pirates around Somalia and that the crew might legally hold whilst on board that boat but which have to be locked up when those vessels arrive in Australia—is treated appropriately. I see that there is some relaxation in the reporting requirements. It appears that that is not a real problem, because that reporting is not seen as needing an early response; Customs has other methods of knowing what might be happening.

We support the bill. I am glad for the opportunity to raise the matters that I have and to return to a bit of history in which I take a particular interest. I can tell you that getting through all the bureaucratic hurdles to chase that first vessel required a few threats and iron-bar type tactics for a while, but we got it, and that made it much easier for the next one. Above all, very sensibly, the government then decided to arm the vessels that go down into the Southern Ocean. To go down there with some of our Navy vessels is unwise; they were quite properly designed to protect Australia from threats from the north and are not particularly well designed to go down into the Southern Ocean. The vessel that goes down there is much better designed for the purpose and has a suitable weapon and a Customs officer who must travel as the person trained to use that weapon. It very smartly stops a vessel running away, preventing the huge expense of following them and having to keep them in view. I think it once was ‘in sight’ but the view now, that ‘only as far as radar contact’ is needed to make an arrest, is an excellent proposal. I note that these provisions even allow for boarding in a port. I think that, too, is a step in the right direction.

Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Customs Amendment (Enhanced Border Controls and Other Measures) Bill 2008. This bill demonstrates this government’s absolute commitment to border security and maintaining a tight customs control regime. The bill shows our government is not afraid of taking tough and decisive measures to control what comes into this country. It shows we are a government concerned about this issue. Unlike the previous government, we are not a government that talks about border security only when it suits our political agenda.

Australia, by and large, has been very successful in protecting our lands from the real threats coming in. We have been effective in controlling the spread of many diseases. We have been effective in controlling mass importation of illegal weapons. That is just to mention a couple of examples. But we also saw, when the system failed us, how catastrophic the consequences can be. The impact on the horseracing operators and owners when horse flu arrived in Australia showed exactly the impact. A whole industry was devastated for months. Jobs were lost. Animals were destroyed. Businesses went bust. The social life of many communities was hurt. So the consequences can be very severe, and this is therefore an extremely important matter for this parliament.

This bill is also very important to the Geelong region and to western Victoria. We have our population to protect. We have farming and various agricultural industries to protect. We have the health of our crops to protect. We have the integrity of our products to protect. We have our marine industries to protect from poachers. We have our youth to protect from drug importation. In Geelong and western Victoria, the region I come from, we also have the port of Geelong and not far down the road the port of Portland. It is critical that we have in place regimes that protect the reputations of these facilities. All sorts of goods and products come in and out of these ports. The regulatory regime that is in place must be there to protect not just our land and products but also, of course, the reputation of these ports. The economic activity generated by these ports in my region is very significant.

Let us just look at a little bit of the detail of this bill. In this detail you can see our determination to keep things tight. You can see our absolute determination to keep improving the system that we have. This bill inserts new provisions, including offences, dealing with missing goods and goods delivered for home consumption without authority. It inserts new circumstances in which the commander of a Commonwealth aircraft can request the pilot of another aircraft to land. It extends the power to seize goods without a warrant to include goods on board a ship that are unaccounted for. It extends the regime for the storage or taking into custody of prohibited weapons to all prohibited imports. It inserts a regime supporting the current power of arrest, consistent with the Crimes Act 1914. It extends the obligation to assist Customs officers to board a ship to the owner or operator of a port or port facility. It 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, as adequately described by the previous speaker. It extends the circumstances in which Customs officers may enter and remain upon certain areas. It 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 with executing such a warrant.

The word ‘tweaking’ is sometimes applied to bills and amendments to bills in this place. This is a little more than that. These are strong new measures to make our customs even more robust. These are strong measures that recognise the world is changing and continues to change and our customs methods and customs regime has to be up to the task. There are some strong new deterrent measures and some very important powers of seizure and compliance within this bill.

I want to briefly say a couple of things about the port of Geelong, which is a critical bit of infrastructure. It is vital for industry development in our region. It is important for my electorate of Corangamite to relate this legislation to this facility. Authorities within my region are currently looking at plans for a major infrastructure upgrade to the port of Geelong. I think this is a very important project. It is one of our region’s top infrastructure priorities. This project includes extending the two different rail line gauges right up to the port, adding capacity and efficiency to the port. And there are other changes that could potentially greatly increase the capacity of this port. It is possible that one day in the not-too-distant future the port of Geelong will be even more important to our region and our economy, particularly given that the port of Melbourne is very close to capacity. With such strong and robust customs regimes in place nationally, the possibility of allowing provincial ports to become major terminals I think is enhanced. In short, I think this legislation is very good for our region. It will serve to keep intact the port’s reputation and to keep intact the reputation of all our ports. And our ports are important. They are a crucial link in the integrity of our trade chain.

To come back again to the detail of the legislation before us, there are some bits and pieces to this legislation that are about tweaking the system, unlike some of the earlier provisions that I mentioned. These changes are not quite as important as some of the previous ones mentioned, but they are again signs of a desire to keep improving our customs regulations in every area. These changes include providing for an exception to the offence of failing to make a cargo report, harmonising the boarding powers with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, amending the impending arrival reporting requirements in relation to pleasure craft, making a technical amendment to the matters that must be included in a search or seizure warrant, inserting a new offence for obstructing or interfering with Customs equipment and extending the power to moor a Customs vessel to a man-made structure.

In summary, what we have is a vigilant government looking hard at every aspect of our customs regime. We are a federal government committed to strong and decisive measures that will be effective in maintaining the integrity of our customs system. Ours is a government that wants to do the right thing by industry and the people employed within the industry. This is not a government that is concerned with shameful changes to one area of border security that are designed to exploit racial hatred for cheap electoral advantage. This is a government genuinely concerned about proper legislation and regulatory change in the critical areas of customs and border security. I thank the House and I commend this bill to the House.

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Customs Amendment (Enhanced Border Controls and Other Measures) Bill 2008, introduced into the House last year. It is crucial to have a strong border control policy. Customs plays a vital role in preventing the illegal movement of people and harmful goods across Australia’s border. Customs protects the Australian community through the interception of illegal drugs and firearms, which of course are high priorities. The border extends to Australia’s exclusive economic zone, where Customs has a key role in addressing threats to the maritime environment through its contribution to the border protection command.

The measures contained in this bill are designed to ensure that Customs can continue to effectively perform its law enforcement and regulatory roles and functions in an increasingly complex and dynamic environment. The bill contains 17 schedules that cater for a range of minor changes that amend the Customs Act, developed, as stated, in consultation with Commonwealth agencies and industry. Many of the amendments deal with patrol and boarding powers, search and seizure powers and powers of arrest. Other amendments align the powers in the Customs Act with those in other Commonwealth legislation, particularly the Crimes Act, and with Australia’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, such as placing a requirement on the master of a vessel that is to be boarded at sea to facilitate the boarding; and creating a new offence for internationally obstructing or interfering with the operation of Commonwealth equipment located at Customs facilities.

It is important that the Australian government has a very strong position on border control. And I know that in my electorate there is very strong community expectation that the government remains strong on this policy. It is also critical to send a very strong message to unscrupulous peoplesmugglers and other potential illegal boat arrivals. Such a policy is also necessary to stop the loss of life—numbers of men, women and children who never arrive at their destination—and to stop desperate people being taken advantage of by ruthless opportunists who cast them off Indonesian shores in unseaworthy vessels.

Peoplesmugglers charge upfront for a one-way deal. They have no interest in whether their customers reach their destination. Peoplesmuggling continues to be a major global criminal activity, exploiting people with cash and contacts or those desperate to start a new life. This activity is estimated to be worth $8 billion annually. The coalition had to deal with the previous surge when thousands of people came in a steady stream of unseaworthy boats—54 boats with over 4,000 people on board arrived in 2000, and hundreds lost their lives as some of the boats sank.

Such peoplesmuggling was brought to a halt with the introduction of temporary protection visas, the excising of Australia’s 4,000 or more northern islands as migration zones and the Pacific solution of offshore processing of people’s claims for asylum. Peoplesmuggling declined to a minor number between 2002 and 2007, with no boats at all prior to the Rudd government’s softening of unlawful arrivals policy in mid-August 2008. What we have seen since is an escalation in arrivals. The government no longer takes into account how the person arrived in Australia or how long they have spent in other countries since leaving their homeland. They are virtually eligible for immediate access to permanent residency with all the accompanying rights and privileges. Within days of this change in legislation, peoplesmugglers were back in business. It is no coincidence that there was a new wave of peoplesmuggling after the introduction of a softer policy. The report in November that the Royal Australian Navy, Army and Air Force would be given extended leave over summer was a further encouragement.

It appears that there is now a belief that Australia is a softer target for peoplesmuggling. From mid-August to December 2008 there have been 10 reported interceptions. Six boats have made it to Australia, including one that sailed directly from Sri Lanka, evading all detection and ending with a couple swimming ashore in Western Australia to ask directions. One of these boats was disabled and sunk as an Australian naval vessel approached.

In mid-January we heard the tragic news that the bodies of four asylum seekers had been washed ashore in West Timor, which is sadly too often the fate of people who trust their lives to people smugglers. This further emphasises that Australia’s border security is important on more than one front: firstly, to ensure that Australia maintains control of who enters the country; and, secondly, to ensure that our border security dissuades people smugglers. We should not forget the catastrophic loss of 353 lives onboard the SIEVX in 2002.

Collaborative work needs to continue with the Indonesian government. Earlier this month Indonesian authorities, supported by the Australian Federal Police, detained a group of 41 Afghan asylum seekers heading for Australia from south-east Sulawesi. Since August 2008, Indonesia has intercepted 16 boatloads of asylum seekers. Six Indonesians believed to be part of the smuggling ring were detained. Resourcing border security operations and the partnership with the Indonesian authorities are clear priorities.

The amendments outlined in schedule 5 of this bill align the boarding powers of the Customs Service with other powers in Commonwealth legislation and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, as I said earlier. They replace a ‘request to board a ship’ with ‘a general power to board a ship’, thus giving an officer the right to board a ship. There are in fact a large number of minor amendments to section 184A contained in the bill. Many of the amendments simplify the language used in existing provisions. Some are more substantive, and align the Customs Act with requirements under the United Nations convention.

Schedule 9 caters for the seizing of unaccounted goods and storing or taking custody of prohibited items, and amends various provisions in the act to deal with prohibited items and not just prohibited weapons. A Customs officer will be authorised to seize, without warrant, goods that are located onboard a ship or aircraft and are not listed in part of the cargo report, or not claimed as baggage belonging to the crew or passengers or otherwise accounted for. This may include items such as certain types of pornography or weapons located by Customs officers during a ship search but not claimed by the crew. 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 brought into Australia will now be required to either be locked on board the ship or aircraft or taken into custody by Customs until the ship or aircraft leaves Australia.

And of course strong border control policies and legislative regulations are necessary to protect every Australian from diseases in breach of our quarantine regulations. The potential damage and inherent quarantine breaches and threats to our biosecurity would have a catastrophic effect on our agricultural sector. This could decimate our own domestic food bowl and of course threaten our strong agricultural exports. Keep in mind that it has only been the strong export performance of agriculture that has kept Australia out of recession. Given the importance of Customs and border protection, the government’s $51.5 million budget cut to the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service in real terms has to impact on Customs’ ability to respond to the multitude of security and biosecurity threats to Australia’s borders.

Overseeing the mass volumes of imports and exports, along with detecting illicit drugs and prohibited imports, are critical roles of Customs. I read an article in the Daily Telegraph dated 30 January by Mark Schliebs. It said:

Australia’s organised crime landscape is being transformed by multinational cartels cashing in on huge profits in the nation’s burgeoning cocaine market.

…            …            …

But the influx of players vying for domination in Australia’s major cities, together with an unrelenting flow of the drug through smuggling routes, has seen the price of cocaine plummet.

…            …            …

A total of 124kg of cocaine were seized by Australian authorities in the 2005-06 financial year. In the following year, 610kg was seized by customs and an equally impressive 634kg was uncovered by state and federal police. Customs alone seized 649kg of the drug in 2008.

This is just in some part the role of Customs.

I conclude by saying that I support this bill, its objectives and all amendments contained in it to ensure, enhance and support the proper functioning of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service.

Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Customs Amendment (Enhanced Border Controls and Other Measures) Bill 2008 and I acknowledge the contribution from my colleague the member for Oxley, who is very passionate about border control. We were having a discussion in his office regarding this issue prior to coming down to the chamber and we both agreed that the Minister for Home Affairs, the Hon. Bob Debus, has done a fantastic job in putting this bill together. I welcome the support that it is receiving from both sides of the House, because border protection is not a political issue, it is an issue for all Australians.

Whilst I am speaking about the amendments to the bill it would be remiss of me not to thank all the hardworking Customs officers in my electorate. There are many Customs personnel in Darwin and Palmerston who are primarily engaged in illegal foreign fishing surveillance and enforcement activity. I have good friends working at Customs, and when I do catch up with those guys it does not take me long to realise what a fantastic job they do when they tell me some of the stories of what they apprehend and what sorts of things are found moving around our coastline.

Like us parliamentarians, these officers are often away from their families for weeks at a time, so we can relate to that side of the job. Like us, many Customs officers often miss out on milestones and family events. They go about their business without any fanfare. They do not often get the accolades that they deserve for carrying out the extremely important job of managing our fisheries and looking for illegal activities. Their jobs are becoming increasingly dangerous. I hear stories about the improvisations to illegal fishing boats, including the welding of spikes on the sides just to make it a little bit more difficult for Customs officials to get on board. Illegal fishers are very innovative. They have GPS, they know a lot of the illegal fishers and they know how to just sit outside the zone and then go in quickly. They will leave the parent boat outside the zone and then go in quickly to fish and try to get out before they are detected.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, the member for Holt, discussed this issue with me as well. He is quite passionate about border protection, and that shows its importance. It is good to see someone with that passion for border protection in the Prime Minister’s office. I had the pleasure this year of going with the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry over to the Kimberley area with Nick Paspaley. We spent a day there looking across Nick Paspaley’s pearl operation. It was with awe that I sat back at about 6 o’clock at night while we were fishing in the Kimberley. You can just picture it: your mind wanders a little bit and you start to think to yourself, ‘I wonder if anyone has ever walked on those cliffs,’ and you see how awesome the Australian landscape and coastline is. I do not know if it is the most beautiful part of the world, but it would certainly make the semi-final. It is just wonderful. Sitting there, I thought about how much we needed to protect our coastline. I know that most members here will be jealous of this, but to drop a line over the edge and pull up some red snapper is just fantastic. We sat there with Nick and we spoke about the Kimberley and just how awesome it is—and it needs to be protected not only for us but for future generations.

Darren Kimmorley and Paul Seden are two Indigenous guys who work in the Customs industry. They are very close friends whom I grew up with. Darren is fantastic, and he works down here in Canberra. Paul Seden was a very good sportsman in his day. I saw him the other day. He had his day a fair while back I think; he looked like he had been in a good paddock! But Paul is very committed, and Indigenous people have a real innate sense of protecting the country. As we try to give Indigenous people opportunities in remote communities, Customs and border protection is something that they can be very good at. They know if the coast has been broken; they know if people are moving around. They have a sixth sense to it. Aboriginal communities working in consultation with Customs and the ADF, and especially with the NORFORCE guys, really do have a sense of knowing what is going on. That is really important.

Being on the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, we often get briefings on Operation Resolute, the joint operation between Customs and Northern Command. They are looking for people smugglers, drugs, illegal fishing and all that sort of stuff. Since the emergency response last year they are also looking for pornographic material as well as illicit drugs, alcohol and kava going into Aboriginal communities. There was recently a big bust of some 150 kilograms of kava up in Darwin. I would like to mention the member for Forrest’s contribution to this debate. She touched on the problems of illicit drugs and what they are doing within our community, especially cocaine and ecstasy. There is a danger within our community of these drugs coming in. Anything that we can do as a parliament to enhance our laws and continue to enhance the operations of Customs, we should.

Protecting our borders is an ever evolving and growing industry. It changes a lot. I am sure that this will not be the last time that we talk about Customs and border protection, because it is so important that we get it right. We must continually revisit it. This is not the sort of legislation that is set in concrete because the people who are breaking the rules are continually looking to change the way they go about it. That is what we are up against. I saw a documentary recently about Mexico and what cocaine and the cartels have done there. Over 3,000 people have been murdered there in the last 12 months or so. Anyone who reports it, anyone who tries to stop it, is basically taken out of the picture. We need to make sure that we are vigilant. As a former elite sports coach I detest drugs. And as a parliament we must continue to work hard to make sure we make it even tougher and harder for people to bring illicit drugs into this country.

In 2006-07, approximately 230 vessels were apprehended in Australian waters and in 2007-08 over 130 vessels were apprehended. Given that the Northern Territory coastline spans some 10,000 kilometres, the ongoing challenges faced by the federal agencies in maintaining effective surveillance operations is significant. A reminder of how important the role is that Customs play in the north is highlighted in a story I read recently about three foreign ice boats being successfully treated for serious bivalve pests found in their hulls—another one that can come in. The black striped mussel was found in one boat and the Asian green mussel was found on another boat. The three boats were treated with chemicals outside Darwin Harbour in an operation lasting seven days. Customs are out there doing their job and this legislation will go a long way to improving their capacity to protect our borders.

There is a raft of things that can go wrong and certainly the job that Customs do with Northern Command in Operation Resolute is an important job. I had the pleasure this year of going out on an Armidale class boat—a fantastic bit of kit that the Navy has based up in Darwin. The Navy guys go out for between two to three weeks, so it is a long time out there. It is a big commitment and they are looking for and apprehending people all the time. I have noticed in some of the graphs that they are not getting in as far as they used to. That means that the laws are working well and this legislation is going to continue to enhance the power that the Customs people have in apprehending illegal fishers and anyone that is moving illicit drugs. As a Northern Territorian, and with the Northern Territory probably very often the first point of call for this type of behaviour, it is heartening to see that this legislation put together by the Minister for Home Affairs will continue to evolve and protect our coastline in Australia from unwanted visitors and people who are not doing the right thing. I commend the bill to the House.

Bob Debus (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

in reply—I am pleased that the opposition supports the Customs Amendment (Enhanced Border Controls and Other Measures) Bill 2008. The measures that are contained in the bill have been developed in consultation with relevant Commonwealth agencies and industry. They are in fact designed to ensure that Customs can continue to effectively perform its law enforcement and regulatory role and function. Ironically, although this bill actually enhances the powers of Customs and its officers, the opposition has suggested that the government is soft on border protection and soft on peoplesmuggling. I believe I should respond to those particular arguments, for they are indeed entirely untrue. Peoplesmuggling is a global problem. Peoplesmuggling is not determined by domestic policy; it is determined much more directly by international circumstances: for instance, by ongoing conflicts in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, which see thousands of displaced people seeking refuge in safe countries like Australia. It remains the case that people smugglers exploit people at their most vulnerable and there is increasing evidence that they are recruiting customers at the present time in source countries. That is to say they are recruiting them in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, and getting much more sophisticated in their recruiting and organising operations.

The Commonwealth government of Australia works closely with its regional neighbours to prevent peoplesmuggling as far as possible at its source and it maintains extensive patrols at its border. Our maritime surveillance operates every day of the year, and that will never change under this government. The recent interceptions of vessels that have been attempting to smuggle people to Australia show that the surveillance arrangements of the Australian government remain strong and effective. Since September last year eight vessels have been intercepted—a total of 185 arrivals. The fact is that people smugglers have been taking advantage of seasonal conditions to arrange those voyages, but the numbers are quite comparable to numbers in previous years. The number of people smuggled in the last years of the Howard government are very similar to the number of people smuggled in the first year of the Rudd government.

I think it is important that we keep this question of peoplesmuggling in some kind of perspective. It is obvious that geography is not on the side of Australia, and it is obvious that we will never be able to eliminate entirely the phenomena of peoplesmuggling. The number of departure points in our region is simply immense and we have to deal with an enormous coastline. Think about the scale of the Indonesian archipelago and the Australian coastline on the one hand and compare them with the coastlines of Italy and North Africa on the other. One is immensely greater than the other. Nevertheless, there have been fewer than 200 arrivals in Australia in the last year while the figure for Italy is 30,000. That is the kind of difference we are talking about, and it does suggest the necessity, as I say, to keep these matters in reasonable perspective. The only reason not to do that is if you want to play the politics of fear as was so prominent during the administration of these matters in the time of the Howard government.

There is constant pressure from people smugglers in our region. Peoplesmugglers have never gone out of business, and so you cannot reasonably say that they are back in business now. They have always been there. They will always take advantage of those people who are fleeing conflict. Conflict is endemic in some parts of our region and in the Middle East. Thousands of displaced people continue to seek refuge in safe countries like Australia for one reason or another.

I point out that Border Protection Command has 12 aircraft flying more than 2,400 missions of surveillance every year. I also point out that we have announced plans to strengthen border security arrangements with the creation of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. It is a serious misrepresentation to suggest that the government is in this respect merely changing the name of an organisation. It is changing the name of our Customs department to that of Australian Customs and Border Protection Service because it is changing the function and reorganising the functions throughout the government to ensure that we are actually more efficient in detecting and deterring peoplesmuggling activity. The new organisation, as it continues to develop, will have the capability to better analyse intelligence, to better coordinate surveillance and to better engage with other countries to address and deter people smuggling to our shores.

I also remind the House that the government has maintained a system of excision and mandatory detention on Christmas Island for all unauthorised boat arrivals and it is, I think, clear enough that, under the sensible and compassionate administration of our colleague the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, the systems in place at Christmas Island have been working well and sensibly. They have been working, however, without resort to the pointless cruelties that so often characterised the administration of illegal immigration under the Howard government.

To return to the bill at hand, it will amend the Customs Act 1901 to clarify the current powers to patrol areas and to moor Customs vessels. It will provide that the current power to board ships without nationality can be exercised in any area outside of the territorial sea of another country. It will clarify that the current power to board vessels in the safety zones surrounding Australia’s offshore facilities relates to offences committed within those zones. It will clarify that the present power to use reasonable force as a means to enable the boarding of a pursued ship encompasses the use of devices designed to stop or impede a ship. It will require notices issued by Customs to state the legal effect of the notice. It will modernise the language relating to the requirement for a ship or aircraft to only be brought to a proclaimed port or airport. These are all amendments which will ensure that officers of our Customs and Border Protection Service are clear about the powers that they are able to exercise as they deal with ships or vessels that are attempting or are reasonably thought to be attempting to engage in some illegal activity within our contiguous zone.

To strengthen Customs’ ability to effectively operate in offshore maritime and seaport environments, the bill will align the requirements of Customs boarding powers with other Commonwealth legislation and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It will place a requirement on the master of a vessel that is to be boarded at sea to facilitate the boarding. It will introduce a new requirement for port and port facility operators to facilitate the boarding of a vessel that is located in port. It will modernise Customs arrest and warrant powers to ensure consistency with the Crimes Act 1914. It will create a new offence for intentionally obstructing or interfering with the operation of Commonwealth equipment located at Customs places and it will remove the requirement for copies of warrants to be marked with the seal of the relevant court. Again, these are all measures that seek to clarify the operation of legislation and to ensure that Customs officers are able to go about their business with the confidence that they are exercising their powers in a legitimate and valid fashion.

To recognise practical constraints in providing reports to Customs, the bill also provides more flexibility for reporting arrivals of vessels, pleasure craft and cargo. It is, I think, in line with community expectations that the bill will strengthen 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. We do not want ambiguity about the power to order an aircraft to land. It will protect the Australian community from goods which, if imported, would be prohibited goods. That in turn will be achieved in two ways.

First, Customs officers are going to be able to seize without warrant goods that are located on board a ship or aircraft and which are not listed in part of the cargo report, not claimed as baggage belonging to the crew or passengers and are otherwise not accounted for. That can include items such as certain types of pornography or weapons located by Customs officers during a ship search but not claimed by the crew. I understand that it has been sometimes the circumstance in the past that these items would be located but nobody would claim them, for obvious reasons, and Customs would then have difficulty in seizing them.

Second, all items on board a ship or aircraft that have arrived in Australia that are either stores or personal effects of the crew and that would be considered a prohibited import if they were imported into Australia are now going to 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. Again, that is an assertion of an arrangement which will make it clear that Customs has the power to secure items of that unpleasant sort. Finally, this bill will create a new offence of failing to keep safe goods which are subject to the control of Customs or failing to account for such goods if they are required to do so. So what this bill does is allow the new Australian Customs and Border Protection Service to perform its role more effectively and more efficiently, protecting the community and at the same time supporting legitimate trade and travel.

It is interesting to see that the role of Customs has been transformed over a generation or so. Customs was a major revenue collecting agency of the Commonwealth when it was first created. These days its role is much more strongly focused. In fact, it is overwhelmingly focused not on the collection of revenue but on the security of borders. Indeed, all of the measures that are included in this bill to improve the efficiency of the department are focused on that issue—making the borders of our country more secure, making the operation of Customs more efficient.

I pay tribute to two groups of people. I pay tribute to those members of this House who have given support to the bill and to the officers of our Customs service, who continue to so effectively ensure that this is a safe place with borders that are, if not impenetrable to illegal activity, far more secure than is common in most countries around the world. Mr Deputy Speaker, I commend the bill to you in those terms.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.