Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This bill which, you would be pleased to hear, Mr President, the Labor Party is supporting seeks to make some minor amendments to the Customs Act. These amendments remove anomalies arising from changes in the nature of modern transport which have rendered some existing Customs and Border Protection procedures ineffective.

The bill extends the powers of Customs and Border Protection officers to examine the bags of domestic travellers and domestic cargo on international flights and voyages. It is an extraordinary thing in itself, you would have thought. At present officers have the power to question all travellers, whether they are international or domestic travellers on the domestic leg of an international flight or voyage, in relation to dutiable, excisable or prohibited goods. However, they do not have the power to examine the personal effects of domestic travellers and domestic cargo on an international flight or voyage.

Domestic travellers on international flights or voyages have the opportunity to mingle with international travellers during embarkation or disembarkation, during processing on an aircraft or ship, and in transit lounges. The department advises that this provides opportunities for bag switches or other exchanges of goods between domestic and international travellers. This can occur before international travellers are cleared on arrival or after international travellers are cleared on departure.

The mixing of domestic cargo and imported goods or goods for export presents risks for diversion of prohibited goods, or goods subject to border related duties and taxes from one stream to the other. Sections of the act will provide Customs and Border Protections officers with powers to examine domestic cargo and the personal effects of domestic travellers who complete a domestic leg of an international flight or voyage. There is no intention to require domestic cargo to be reported.

The bill also extends control on arrival of ships and aircraft at places that are not proclaimed ports. Section 68 of the Customs Act requires the master of a ship or a pilot of an aircraft to bring the vessel or aircraft to a proclaimed port unless bad weather or other reasonable causes prevent them from doing so. However, the growth in Australia's offshore resources and the development of the cruise ship industry have changed the pattern of maritime arrivals. Increasingly, ships are required to arrive from outside Australia to a place that is not a proclaimed port. In 2013, Australian cruise ship passenger numbers reached a record high of 833,000, making this country the world leader in the rate of growth and market penetration. The 20 per cent growth rate for the Australian industry in 2013 was more than double that achieved in other cruise ship markets. This growth rate has continued, with more ships deployed in local waters last year than at any other time.

As the legislation currently stands, however, Customs and Border Protection officers do not have the power to control goods that arrive at an unproclaimed port. These amendments will correct that anomaly by extending customs control to unproclaimed ports. Instead of requiring ships or aircraft to arrive at a proclaimed port or airport where border activities can be managed, Customs and Border Protection officers will be able to manage risk and conduct the necessary activities at places that are not proclaimed. To provide equivalence of search and examination powers, the definition of 'designated place' and 'customs place' will therefore be amended.

The bill also standardises the application process for missions to load and unload ships and aircraft stores, or the transfer of goods between certain vessels, and for applying for certificates of clearance before departure. At present, there is a lack of detail about what these forms must contain. The amendment seeks to overcome this by introducing an approved form and will also simplify the process and make it more user-friendly by allowing for reporting online. The amendments give the CEO of Customs and Border Protection greater flexibility in dealing with arrival reports for ships and aircraft and for the reporting of stores and prohibited goods on such vessels. At present, ships and aircraft arriving in Australia must provide the Customs and Border Protection Service with the particulars of their arrival and of stores of any prohibited goods at the time of arrival. These reports must be made, in relation to a ship, within 24 hours of the ships arrival, disregarding weekends and public holidays, and, in relation to aircraft, within three hours of arrival. These reports are necessary to assess the risk of items that may be on board and to establish a plan to deal with them—for example, firearms or narcotics, which may be required to be contained or managed in a certain way.

The existing requirements have become inconvenient and sometimes burdensome, especially with regard to ships. Ships may arrive in a port with prohibited stores on a Friday afternoon but the inspection may not be possible and the appropriate measures may not be put in place until the following Monday or even the following Tuesday if it has been a long weekend. These amendments will allow the CEO of Customs to specify by legislative instrument, which will be disallowable, when the reports must be made for different kinds of ships and aircraft in different circumstances. Reports will be required to be made at the appropriate time to minimise the inconvenience for the master or owner of a ship or the pilot or owner of an aircraft.

The changes will also allow the Customs and Border Protection service to deal with information in these reports at a more convenient time to provide earlier assessments and deploy resources more efficiently. These changes do not apply to cargo; they only apply to stores and prohibited goods. The bill also corrects technical errors arising from the interaction of the Customs and Border Protection Service Infringement Notice Scheme and the claims processes for seized goods. Since February last year, infringement notices can be issued for strict or absolute liability offences under the act, including importing prohibited items. There has been an unintended consequence of the Infringement Notice Scheme. As well as notices being issued, prohibited goods can also be seized and then dealt with under the claims process set out in a separate section of the act. Under the Infringement Notice Scheme, goods would be taken to be condemned by the Crown if the goods are prohibited imports. If the recipient pays a penalty for the infringement notice, it is subsequently withdrawn. Under the act, if a seizure notice is served a person has 30 days to make a claim for the return of goods. A claim for the return of goods may be made; but if not made within 30 days after the seizure notice, the goods will be taken to be condemned as forfeit to the Crown. However, a claim for the return of goods may not be made if goods have been taken to be condemned as forfeit to the Crown. The legal status of the goods is therefore complicated if both a seizure notice and an infringement notice have been issued and the penalty has been paid, but the notices later withdrawn. Basically, that means you cannot get any goods back. These amendments will correct the error and ensure a smooth interaction between the infringement scheme and the seizure process. The changes will mean that the condemnation of goods will not apply if an INS notice is withdrawn. They will allow a person up to 30 days after the INS notice is withdrawn to make a claim for the goods, when the goods have been seized, a seizure notice has been served, an INS for the offence in relation to the importation of the goods has been given, the penalty has been paid within a required time and the INS is subsequently withdrawn.

There is currently no provision in the act's interpretation for action by statutory authorities and the current provisions only allow for the CEO of Customs to authorise a class of person. The law remains unsettled as to whether an authorisation will apply to future officers or positions within an authorised class that comes into existence after the authorisation is given. These amendments will change the definition of an authorised officer so the authorisation can apply to officers or positions which come into existence after the authorisation of a class of officers is given.

This omnibus bill has been in preparation for some time, as this speech has been. These amendments will also improve the operations of the Customs Act in responding to issues that have been identified by practitioners, especially owners and operators in the cruise ship industry. It is important that border protection measures continue to be refined through bills such as this to ensure the Australian community is protected and international criminal enterprises are prevented from entering our borders.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like Senator Carr, I support this Customs Amendment Bill. I thank Senator Carr for his insightful and very academic explanation of aspects of the bill, which he is obviously very well aware of. His office, which assists him with these things, is clearly well in tune with the purpose of these amendments. The minister's second reading speech also explains the need for these amendments.

The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee examined this bill, which was referred to the committee by the Senate for investigation. The committee received just one submission from the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service which, naturally enough, did not raise any issues with the bill. But it explained some of the aspects of the bill to the committee, and the committee is grateful for the submission as it did clarify a number of matters. Overall, the committee considered the amendments made by the bill are positive and allow for streamlining and clarification of procedures under the act

At this stage, I might pause to again thank the secretariat staff and members of the committee, assisted considerably by the deputy chair, Senator Jacinta Collins, on the work done on this particular bill. I appreciate the expertise and professionalism of the secretariat staff in the way they consider these things.

During the course of the inquiry the committee did become aware of one ambiguity in this bill that it considered worthy of clarification. The ambiguity related to proposed section 186AA, which would allow goods carried on domestic lakes of international flights or voyages to be examined by a Customs officer. As the committee noted in its report, the proposed subsection is a power to examine goods that have not yet been loaded onto a ship or aircraft, while proposed subsection (3) gives a similar power in respect of goods that have already been unloaded. Both of those provisions provide that goods are subject to the control of Customs while the goods are being examined.

The committee did raise some issues—as a helpful approach to the government—to just say, 'Have you got this right or does this need a little further consideration?' The government has responded, and no doubt the minister will refer to that in her closing speech.

This is a Customs bill, and I take the opportunity to congratulate the Customs service on the great work they do for Australia. It is a very big service. As anyone who travels overseas will know, they are very professional. We see them at airports and sea ports but they do a lot of other things besides that. I am very much encouraged by the officer in charge of the Customs service in the way he has approached his new duties.

He is relatively new. He entered the senior position at a time when there were difficulties with some internal investigations and charges raised against a number of Customs officers for what has turned out to be for illegal conduct, and appropriate enforcement action has been taken. I do want to congratulate the CEO and all of the staff for the way they have approached their activities and for the professionalism and honesty that 99.9 per cent of the very significant staff in the Customs and Border Protection Service have.

In mentioning the Customs and Border Protection Service I should also, again, give thanks to Lieutenant General Campbell in the work that he has done in Operation Sovereign Borders. They are—sometimes we forget—done by members of the Customs and Border Protection Service in association with other agencies of the Commonwealth government. I do not think we can too often thank those people for their sterling service.

Senator Carr rightly mentioned how this bill will interact with the increasing cruise-ship industry in Australia. Some of the reasons for these fairly technical amendments to this bill do relate to the increased presence of international ships and aircraft visiting Australian ports. I am delighted to say as a North Queenslander that there are increasing cruise-ship activities along the Queensland coast. More often than not cruise-ship activities used to be out of Sydney or Brisbane, heading to the Pacific. That was 10 or 20 years ago. That is where the cruise ship industry in Australia started. But I am delighted to see—and I keep an eye on these things—that more and more ships are now plying the Australian coast, and that has meant a big boost to the local economies: the Whitsundays, at Airlie Beach, where a lot of cruise ships stop; also in Townsville and Cairns; sometimes in Port Douglas; even dropping by the Torres Strait Islands. A lot of cruises are now venturing in to Papua New Guinea, and I think that can only be good for the Papua New Guinean economy. It will also make it easier for Australians wanting to explore further our associations with Papua New Guinea—some of them going back to the very significant war-time involvements with Papua New Guinea. It does allow people to get up to those parts in the comfort, indeed luxury, of some of those cruise ships.

So it is a great industry. It is working very well. Congratulations to the cruise lines. But of course those activities have to be supported by Customs, by a very intense consideration of our border protection measures, and that does not just mean Customs and imports; it also means biosecurity. And again I thank the biosecurity people for the work they do in keeping our borders secure and ensuring that Australia remains safe from imported diseases.

Tourism is a huge industry and it is likely to increase more. Mr Andrew Robb, the Minister for Investment and Trade, was indicating recently that the number of tourists coming into Australia from China alone will burgeon over the next few years. That will be give enormous benefits to the tourism industry in Australia. We have some work to do. We have to realise that tourism is a service industry. We have to make sure that Australians are trained properly in tourism and hospitality issues. We have to keep an eye on the costs of tourism and hospitality in Australia. We have to work with the many young people who are in that business to get the right sort of workplace relations regime so that we are competitive and so that they have continuing jobs. I know a lot of young people who are keen to get the work and keen to be well paid; but I do not particularly acknowledge so much that Sunday work or night work deserves the very substantial additional payments they get, which do put pressure on our competitiveness in the tourism industry in a very competitive worldwide area.

Customs plays a very significant part in building Australia's tourism. Very often it is the Customs officials who are the first contact many foreign visitors have with Australia. My own experience is that the Customs officials are pleasant and very professional in the work they do and that they are well-trained. Talking about training brings me to a question which has not yet been resolved by our government. I would hope the minister at the table will pass this on to the new minister, Mr Dutton; certainly we have had some discussions with the previous minister Mr Morrison. There are proposals for a significant new training establishment in Australia to train Customs people and try to bring them all together. I have been one of those who—naturally enough, you might say—have advocated for this new training facility to be located somewhere in northern Australia. I do not want to get into a fight with others in this chamber who may say their area is better but certainly one of the real opportunities for growth in our tourist industry is in northern Australia. We have the world famous and world-class Great Barrier Reef. We have rainforests. We have significant Indigenous art and experiences. We have the Torres Strait Islands and the outback. I think it would be appropriate to give serious consideration, as part of our Northern Australia development policy, to consider that training facility somewhere in the north.

Having directed myself to the Barrier Reef, which is one of the places that attracts millions of people to Australia, can I just say in passing how disappointed I am at the lies and misinformation that continue to be propagated by radical green movements, and by the Greens political party in this chamber, about the state of the Barrier Reef. Ask any tourist what the Barrier Reef is like and they will say, 'It is absolutely magnificent'. Ask GetUp!, or the Greens political party at the Queensland election, what it is like and they would have Australians believe that the Barrier Reef was on its last legs. It is simply untrue and simply done for crass political purposes.

I have the utmost condemnation for GetUp! and the Greens political party on running this misinformation, this deliberately lying campaign, about one of Australia's greatest natural assets. I might say that the Greens political party and GetUp! kept talking about dumping spoil on the reef—

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Senator Macdonald, a point of order. Senator Rice.

Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on a point of order. I would like Senator Macdonald to withdraw the accusation of a deliberately lying campaign by the Greens.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Rice. Senator Macdonald, it is a reflection in an unparliamentary manner on a political party and on senators within this chamber. It would assist if you would withdraw that implication in your contribution. Thank you, Senator Macdonald.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw, Mr President, and I would ask you to review your ruling. I always understood that you could not defame a political party but you can defame individuals. I did not say that Senator Rice was deliberately lying; I was saying that the Greens political party, their supporters and GetUp! at the Queensland election—and elsewhere, I might say, such as in the UN—continue to propagate misinformation for crass political purposes. I would ask you, Mr President, if you could perhaps sometime review that. I was of the understanding that I could say—and I would not—that the Labor Party tells lies but I could not say that Senator Carr tells lies, but I leave that to you.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Macdonald, there have been past rulings where it does apply to groups of senators as well as to individual senators. So, in the case of Senator Rice where she raised the point of order, it would be helpful if you withdrew that direct remark and then continued with your contribution.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have withdrawn it.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Macdonald.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I did that before in deference to your ruling, but I was just asking you to reflect on that and let me know, and you have done that. I find that surprising as I was not aware of it, but I live and learn. Let me say that GetUp!, which as everyone knows is just an offshoot or front for the Greens political party, were telling deliberate lies and they always do.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of Australia's greatest natural assets. That is why people come to Australia. That is why we have to look at this Customs Amendment Bill to improve matters to allow foreign visitors, and Australians, to see great natural assets like the Great Barrier Reef. It disturbs me that, for as much as Australia promotes the Barrier Reef, you have the Greens political party and GetUp! misleading the public on this.

As I started to say, the Greens political party, GetUp! and their cohorts talk about the damage to the reef from dumping spoil. They only seem to have had this concern since the government change. When the previous Labor government dumped millions and millions of tonnes of spoil not on the reef but near the reef, you never heard a word from the Greens political party or GetUp! It is simply a political tool and action by people who I call un-Australian.

On that note, I might just congratulate the Speaker of the House, who led an Australian delegation to the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum in Quito in Ecuador. I congratulate Mrs Bishop on the role she played in promoting Australia and promoting the Great Barrier Reef and exposing the lies of the Greens political party—can I say that?—or exposing the misinformation of the Greens political party and the lies of groups like GetUp!, deliberately seeking to destroy Australian industry.

I just want to move on very quickly, talking about customs issues, to give all praise and credit to Mr Tony Abbott, Mr Ewen Jones, Mr Warren Truss and Ms Julie Bishop for their announcement just last weekend about the opening of the Townsville International Airport to international flight activities. One of the problems with flights out of Townsville was the cost of Customs officers, because there are not Customs officers permanently based at the Townsville Airport, and that has been a restriction or an impediment to international flights, because it meant whoever was doing the international flights had to pay to bring Customs officers from Sydney, Brisbane or Cairns to Townsville to service a three-times-a-week service. I am delighted that—as a result of the fabulous work done by Ewen Jones, the member for Herbert, by George Christensen, the member for Dawson, by Townsville Enterprise Limited and by Townsville Airport Limited—the government has agreed to assist with the cost of Customs officers so that international flights can start from Townsville to Bali, Singapore and beyond. I understand that, as well as AirAsia, Jetstar are also looking at these new services.

It will mean a huge boost for tourism into Australia and a huge boost for tourism from Australia to Bali—and anything we can do to help the Indonesians I am always very keen to support. It will build relationships between Australia, particularly northern Australia, and Indonesia, and it is a great initiative. It got overlooked a little bit last weekend, with other things attracting the news, but Tony Abbott was in Townsville with the foreign minister, Julie Bishop, with Warren Truss as transport minister and, importantly, with Mr Jones to make those announcements to really set Townsville aflame, one might almost say, in the international tourism market and in international air flights from Townsville to Asia. All credit to Ewen Jones. It is something he has worked on assiduously over many months, and I am delighted that he has achieved success. I thank Tony Abbott for his understanding and his ability to make that happen. It will pay for itself in spades over a period of time. It is a good investment, and again it is a good example of this government continuing to work in Australia's interests, continuing to promote Australia as a great tourism destination and continuing to support the hospitality industries in Australia and particularly in the North.

With those few remarks on this relatively uncontentious technical bill, I will conclude, but I again congratulate the minister on fixing these technical breaches. I thank the opposition for its support for these amendments. As chairman of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, which investigated the bill, I again thank members of the committee and the secretariat for their support in looking into this bill.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank senators for their contributions to the debate. The Customs Amendment Bill 2014 is an omnibus bill that proposes several minor changes to the Customs Act 1901. The proposed changes will: (a) extend Customs controls to places at which ships and aircraft arrive in Australia in accordance with section 58 of the Customs Act; (b) provide greater flexibility in relation to the reporting of the arrival of ships and aircraft in Australia, and reporting of stores and prohibited goods on such ships and aircraft; (c) improve the application processes for approvals to load, unload and use ships and aircraft stores, permissions to transfer goods between certain vessels and applications for certificates of clearance, and these amendments will also support initiatives to enable online applications for these approvals, permissions and certificates; (d) extend Customs powers of examination to the baggage of domestic passengers on international flights and voyages, and to domestic cargo that is carried on an international flight or voyage; (e) enhance the interaction of the Infringement Notice Scheme with the claims process under the act in relation to prohibited imports; and, finally, (f) allow class-based authorisations to include future officers or positions that come into existence after the authorisation is given.

I am aware that the legal and constitutional affairs committee report raised a query about section 186AA, and requested there be clarification about where an examination under that section would begin and end. The department has prepared a supplementary submission to the committee and I am advised that the committee were satisfied with the department's submission. This was communicated from the office of the chair of the committee to the minister's office on 1 October 2014, and I thank the committee for their contribution and their report.

The amendments will enhance Customs controls and examination powers, improve Customs compliance and enforcement activities, and modernise the environment within which the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service operate. The changes in this bill, as has been stated, are minor, although they do make significant improvements to the ability for Customs officers to do their jobs. Customs officers are operating in an increasingly challenging environment, and this parliament must remain responsive to the risks they face in securing Australia's borders. I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.