Matt Thistlethwaite (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Maritime Powers Bill 2012 and the Maritime Powers (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2012. As Australia is an island continent and has sovereign rights over a vast area of ocean, the harmonisation of several bills in the maritime powers area is a very important reform.

Australia has 60,000 kilometres of coastline. It is the third-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, after the United States and France. Our maritime search and rescue region covers one-tenth of the Earth's surface. We have the world's third-largest fishing zone, extending up to 200 nautical miles out to sea, and our commercial fishing and aquaculture industry is worth over $2 billion to our economy annually and employs 16,000 Australians.

Australia faces a litany of maritime threats which require constant vigilance from dedicated officers working under difficult conditions across a range of portfolios. These committed professionals do a very important job on behalf of the Australian people, and they deserve our thanks and our support. Often the important work of our border protection agencies goes unrecognised and unnoticed. For instance, recently three Indonesian fishermen were convicted for illegal fishing. The men, who were operating in two boats, were blast fishing with explosives inside Australian waters in early October of last year. Both vessels were initially sighted by surveillance aircraft from the Australian Border Protection Command and were apprehended by patrol boats from the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. The first boat was apprehended on 1 October at Scott Reef, about 250 nautical miles north of Broome, and the second boat was apprehended on 2 October at Evans Shoal, about 100 nautical miles north-west of Darwin and 18 nautical miles inside Australian waters. Both vessels had chemicals on board, including TNT and detonators, to make small bombs for the purpose of fishing. Both masters admitted to using the equipment to undertake blast fishing in Australian waters. Following investigations by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, the three men were charged by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and all pleaded guilty in the Darwin courts. They were fined a total of $43,000. Both boats were confiscated by AFMA and were destroyed.

The Maritime Powers Bill will ensure that AFMA and our border protection agencies have the tools they need to continue their difficult tasks into the future. In 2008, the Prime Minister commissioned the former Secretary of the Department of Defence and Ambassador to China and Indonesia, Mr Ric Smith, to report on the best and most efficient way to coordinate Australia's national security arrangements in the maritime area. The review recognised that many threats are cross-jurisdictional and transnational in nature. The review recommended an additional focus on threats and hazards other than terrorism, including emergency management, serious and organised crime and electronic attack. The review identified, amongst other things, that there was scope to streamline the legal framework for maritime enforcement activity.

Commonwealth agencies are responsible for the enforcement of a broad range of laws in the maritime domain, including illegal fishing, customs, migration, quarantine, environmental protection and trafficking of illicit substances. However, despite similarities in the powers required, legislation governing enforcement has been largely agency or issue-specific. When then Attorney-General Robert McClelland announced the development of this bill back in 2009, he highlighted the fact that Australia's maritime agencies were operating under at least 35 separate Commonwealth acts. He also stated that the differences in the powers of each act and the associated procedures had the potential to create operational problems, legal uncertainty and policy difficulties in making sure that enforcement remains up to date and consistent.

This bill responds to those concerns and creates a more streamlined, more harmonised approach through a single maritime enforcement law. Operational agencies will not lose any powers that they currently have available to them. Significantly, the bill will provide a mechanism to implement and enforce international agreements that have a maritime enforcement aspect. For example, the bill will provide a comprehensive regime for Australia to implement its high-seas boarding and inspection rights and obligations under regional fisheries agreements. The bill will also provide for the implementation and enforcement of decisions of international bodies such as the United Nations Security Council.

The bill establishes a range of appropriate safeguards in relation to the exercise of maritime powers, including instituting a system of authorisations for enforcement actions on specific grounds by senior maritime officers. The bill also elucidates the chain of command at sea to allow maritime officers to exercise powers in relation to vessels, installations, aircraft, protected land areas and isolated persons, including where they are reasonably suspected of contravening Australian law, to administer or ensure compliance with Australian law, or where an international agreement or decision applies.

The bill provides a simpler, more cohesive set of guidelines surrounding maritime enforcement powers and the purposes for which maritime officers may exercise those powers. The bill does impose geographical limitations on the exercise of maritime powers. It establishes processes for dealing with things that are seized, retained or detained, and for persons held as a result of the exercise of maritime powers. The powers are largely based on those that currently operate in existing legislation and are necessary and appropriate to enforce laws in Australia's maritime area.

According to the Customs and Border Protection Acting Chief Executive Officer, Michael Pezzullo, intelligence shared across borders and organisations makes all the difference. In 2012, Customs and Border Protection officers made over 6,600 detections to stop more than three tonnes of illicit drugs and precursor substances from hitting Australia's streets. This is more than double the number of detections in 2011. In 2012, Customs and Border Protection also detained over 1,100 firearms and firearm parts, accessories and magazines and approximately 247,000 other weapons. This is indicative of the battles that our border protection authorities fight every day, for which they need our full support and, importantly, laws that allow them to carry out the dangerous work that they do in the most effective and safest way possible. This bill will go a long way toward achieving that goal.

The bill provides a smarter and simpler approach to maritime enforcement through streamlining the framework for use by our on-water enforcement agencies. Where existing maritime enforcement powers overlap with powers in the Maritime Powers Bill, the Maritime Powers (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2012 will reduce that duplication. The bill has been subject to extensive consultation processes with agencies and relevant stakeholders to ensure that the consolidation exercise maintains current operational power for agencies. I commend the bill to the Senate.