EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Select Legislative Instrument 2005 No. 37

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Justice and Customs

Customs Act 1901

Customs Amendment Regulations 2005 (No. 1)

 

Subsection 270(1) of the Customs Act 1901 (the Act) provides in part that the Governor-General may make regulations not inconsistent with the Act prescribing all matters which by the Act are required or permitted to be prescribed or as may be necessary or convenient to be prescribed for giving effect to the Act or for the conduct of any business relating to the Customs.

 

The purpose of the amending Regulations is to substitute regulation 170B of the Customs Regulations 1926 (the Principal Regulations) to update the reference to security identification card.

 

Section 213A of the Act requires a person who employs a person in certain restricted areas of an appointed airport, who has not been issued with a security identification card, to provide certain information about the employee to Customs.

Section 213B of the Act requires a person who issues a security identification card to another person in respect of an appointed airport to provide Customs with certain information about the person to whom the card has been issued.

Subsection 213A(7) of the Act provides that in section 213A security identification card means a card of a kind specified in the regulations. Subsection 213B(4) provides that in section 213B security identification card has the same meaning given by section 213A of the Act.

Regulation 170B of the Principal Regulations previously specified an ASIC, as defined in regulation 76 of the Air Navigation Regulations 1947 (the Air Navigation Regulations), for the purposes of that definition of security identification card in section 213A of the Act. However, the provisions of the Air Navigation Act 1920 under which regulation 76 of the Air Navigation Regulations was made were repealed on 10 March 2005.

The new requirements relating to aviation transport security are contained in the Aviation Transport Security Act 2004. Sections 3 to 133 of that Act and the regulations made under it, the Aviation Transport Regulations 2005 (the Aviation Transport Security Regulations), also took effect on 10 March 2005.

Regulation 1.03 of the Aviation Transport Regulations relevantly defines ASIC to mean an aviation security identification card and VIC to mean a visitor identification card.

New regulation 170B specifies an ASIC and a VIC within the Aviation Transport Security Regulations for the purposes of the definition of security identification card in subsection 213A(7) of the Act. This ensures that Customs continues to receive information about people in relation to appointed airports.

 

No consultation was undertaken in relation to the amending Regulations as they are of a minor or machinery nature and do not substantially alter existing arrangements.

 

The amending Regulations commence on the day after they are registered.

 

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