House of Representatives

Explanatory Memorandum

(Circulated by authority of the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator the Honourable Christopher Martin Ellison, MP)

Outline and financial impact

Outline

The purpose of this Bill is to amend the Customs Act 1901 (the Customs Act) and the Customs Administration Act 1985 (the Customs Administration Act), the Fisheries Management Act 1991 (the Fisheries Management Act), the Migration Act 1958 (the Migration Act) and the Evidence Act 1995 (the Evidence Act) to:

1.

increase Customs powers at airports by allowing Customs officers to patrol airports, increasing the restricted areas in which unauthorised entry is prohibited and by allowing officers to remove people from those restricted areas (Schedules 1 and 3);

2.

require employers of people who work in restricted areas of the airport to provide information about those people to Customs (Schedule 2);

3.

require the issuers of security identification cards (which are issued to most people who work at airports) to provide information about the people to whom they have issued security identification cards (Schedule 2);

4.

require goods that are in transit through Australia to be reported to Customs (Schedule 4);

5.

allow in transit goods to be examined and certain in transit goods to be seized (Schedule 4);

6.

require mail to be electronically reported to Customs as part of a cargo report (Schedule 5);

7.

require certain airlines and shipping operators to report passengers and crew to Customs and the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs electronically (Schedule 6);

8.

require certain airlines to provide Customs with access to their computer reservation systems (Schedule 7);

9.

allow the Australian Fisheries Management Authority to disclose vessel monitoring system data to Customs under the Fisheries Management Act (Schedule 8);

10.

allow the Chief Executive Officer of Customs to authorise a person to perform the functions of a Customs officer by reference to their position or office even if that position or office does not exist at the time of making the authorisation (Schedule 9);

11.

tighten provisions allowing the Chief Executive Officer of Customs to authorise the carriage of approved firearms and personal defence equipment by Customs officers for the safe exercise of powers conferred under the Customs Act and other Acts (Schedule 10);

12.

restore the power to arrest persons who assault, resist, molest, obstruct or intimidate a Customs officer in the course of his or her duties, which was inadvertently removed by the Criminal Code Amendment (Theft, Fraud, Bribery and Related Offences) Act 2000 (Schedule 11);

13.

include the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence as a Commonwealth agency for the purposes of section 16 of the Customs Administration Act (Schedule 12); and

14.

provide that certain undeclared dutiable goods found in the unaccompanied personal and household effects of a person are forfeited goods (Schedule 13).

Financial impact statement

It is estimated that the costs to Customs for the upgrade of systems to accept and process in-transit goods reports will be no more than $0.1m for both current and future automation systems. Some reporters may be required to amend processes and practices in order to report in-transit goods. It is anticipated that the costs of this additional reporting will be marginal.

The changes to passengers and crew reporting are not expected to have a significant impact on Commonwealth expenditure or revenue.

There is a cost for the ongoing service fees associated with access to airline passenger information computer systems, namely; purchase of system infrastructure and connection devices, and Customs staff and associated supplier expenses required to develop and operate the systems and analyse passenger data. The issue of supplementation is under consideration.

The other amendments in this Bill have no financial impact.