Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

Customs Tariff Proposal (No. 1) 2023.

The customs tariff proposal that I have just tabled amends the description of goods eligible for the customs duty concession provided by item 9 of schedule 4 to the Customs Tariff Act 1995. This concession provides a free rate of customs duty for prescribed groups of international organisations. These international organisations must be established by an agreement between the government of Australia and the government of another country or countries.

The European Space Agency, ESA, has relied upon this concession since the early 1980s. Australia and the ESA have had a longstanding partnership. Since 1979, agreements have been in place to enable ESA ground stations in Australia to track and communicate with space missions. Ground stations, including that located in the northern part of Perth in Western Australia, host antennas for tracking and deep space communications as well as supporting facilities. The ground station is locally operated by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia's national science agency. Construction is underway for the expansion of this facility, for an overall cost of $84 million. The expansion includes a new 35-metre-diameter deep space antenna. This new antenna will communicate with important scientific space missions around the world, which will help scientists answer important questions such as whether life could have emerged elsewhere in the solar system. Australian contractors will secure approximately $32 million as part of the project works, which will contribute greatly to the local economy and grow Australia's civil space industry. The Australian government has contributed $4 million towards this project.

The ESA is also building a Biomass calibration transponder at the facility to support the upcoming Biomass mission, expected to launch in 2024. This mission aims to provide critical information about forests globally and improve our understanding of the role forests play in the carbon cycle. The agreements underpinning the partnership between Australia and the ESA provide that goods for use in agreed activities be imported free from customs duty. In preparation for the expansion of the facility, the ESA sought advice from the Australian Border Force on the process for using the concession to import their goods. It was determined that, even though the ESA has relied upon the concession for international organisations for 40 years, they were not eligible for the concession, as they are not an international organisation formed by an agreement between the government of Australia and the government of another country.

The amendments to item 9 will allow the ESA to access this customs duty concession, and they will apply it retrospectively to 1 December 2022, enabling refund applications to be lodged, and will ensure that the Australian government is meeting the obligations under the agreement it holds with the ESA. The amendments do not impact the requirement of any other international organisation that any agreements be established between the government of Australia and the government of another country or countries to be eligible for a free rate of customs duty.

Debate adjourned.