David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Export Charges (Imposition—General) Amendment Bill 2019 is the first of three bills which will amend the current charging legislation relating to export.

These bills will make amendments to the current charging legislation to reflect the Export Control Bill 2019, and the repeal of the Export Control Act 1982 and the Export Charges (Collection) Act 2015 by the Export Control (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2019.

The Export Charges (Imposition—General) Amendment Bill 2019 will amend the Export Charges (Imposition—General) Act 2015, which deals with charges that are not a duty of customs or excise within the meaning of section 55 of the Constitution.

This will allow the Commonwealth to continue to impose charges that appropriately reflect the cost of administering the export control system, both now and into the future.

The bill does not set the amount of the charges and does not apply any financial impacts on business. This is because the specific charges will be set out in regulations, as they are now.

The bill continues to provide that, before making these regulations, the Minister for Agriculture must be satisfied that the amount charged will not be more than the likely costs in connection with the export of goods.

This will provide business with confidence that the government will not charge more than is necessary to recover the costs of its export services.

Together, the three charging bills will ensure that charges for export activities continue to be supported by legislation and that these charges reflect the Commonwealth's likely costs relating to the administration of Australia's export control system. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.