House of Representatives

Explanatory Memorandum

(Circulated by authority of the Minister for Home Affairs, the Honourable Bob Debus MP)

SCHEDULE 1 - ARRIVALS REPORT AND REPORT OF STORES AND PROHIBITED GOODS

Customs Act 1901

Background

16. Section 64AA of the Customs Act provides for the reporting of the arrival of a ship or aircraft on a voyage or flight to Australia from a place outside Australia. Subsection 64AA(3) provides that for a ship, the arrival report must be made before the end of 24 hours (disregarding any period that occurs on a Sunday or holiday) after the ship's arrival or the issue of a Certificate of Clearance in respect of the ship and the port.

17. Section 64AAA of the Customs Act provides for the reporting of stores and prohibited goods on a ship or aircraft on a voyage or flight to Australia from a place outside Australia. Similar to subsection 64AA(3), subsection 64AAA(3) provides that for a ship, the stores and prohibited goods report must be made before the end of 24 hours (disregarding any period that occurs on a Sunday or holiday) after the ship's arrival or the issue of a Certificate of Clearance in respect of the ship and the port.

18. The requirement that the arrival report and the stores and prohibited goods report be made before the end of the 24 hour period after the ship has arrived has meant that, for ships arriving on a Friday evening, shipping companies have been required to bring staff into their offices on a Saturday to make the required reports. Were the same ship to arrive on the Saturday, as both subsections 64AA(3) and 64AAA(3) disregard periods that occur on a Sunday or a holiday, the arrival report and the stores and prohibited goods report would be able to be made on the next business day.

19. As the information collected on the reports is not used by Customs to undertake real time risk assessment and the periods which occur on a Sunday and a holiday are already disregarded, subsections 64AA(3) and 64AAA(3) are to be amended to also disregard periods which occur on a Saturday. By disregarding periods that occur on a Saturday, Sunday or a holiday, the arrival report and the stores and prohibited goods report will be able to be made on the next business day after the arrival of the ship at its first port in Australia.

Item 1 - Subparagraph 64AA(3)(a)(i)

20. This item amends subparagraph 64AA(3)(a)(i) of the Customs Act by substituting the words "Sunday or holiday" with the words "Saturday, Sunday or holiday". This will mean that the 24 hour period in which the arrival report is required to be made for a ship will disregard periods which occur on a Saturday, Sunday or a holiday.

Item 2 - Subparagraph 64AAA(3)(a)(i)

21. This item amends subparagraph 64AAA(3)(a)(i) by substituting the words "Sunday or holiday" with the words "Saturday, Sunday or holiday". This will mean that the 24 hour period in which the stores and prohibited goods report is required to be made for a ship will disregard periods which occur on a Saturday, Sunday or a holiday.

Item 3 - Application provision

22. This item sets out an application provision in relation to the amendments to subparagraphs 64AA(3)(a)(i) and 63AAA(3)(a)(i). The application provision provides that the amendments to subparagraphs 64AA(3)(a)(i) and 63AAA(3)(a)(i) will apply to a ship that arrives at a port in Australia less than 24 hours before, at or after the commencement of the amendments.

23. The effect of the application provision is that if the amendments commenced on a Saturday, a ship which arrived on the Friday before the amendments commenced would be subject to the amended subparagraphs 64AA(3)(a)(i) and 63AAA(3)(a)(i). The ship would therefore be able to disregard the periods which occurred on Saturday, Sunday and a holiday and make the arrival report and stores and prohibited reports on the next business day.