Australian Customs and Border Protection Service - protecting Australia’s borders?
Fewer than one in 100 containers are physically examined at our borders. Mark Standen, the former New South Wales assistant director of Investigations with the Crime Commission confirmed this notable statistic while being secretly recorded via his webcam-enabled computer. At the time, Mr Standen was under investigation for drug trafficking, importation and conspiring to defeat justice. He is now in jail awaiting trial.
Ideally, every container or package that arrives on our shores should be inspected by Customs. However, the costs of infrastructure and staffing and the impediment of cargo movement on our shores make that lofty goal impossible. While the reasons for the small number of inspections are valid, it does indicate that despite the work of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, Australia’s borders are permeable - meaning that the potential for undesirable cargo to make its way into Australia is real.
According to hearings in May 2009 Senate Estimates, revised arrangements due to be introduced in 2010 will see an approximate 25 per cent reduction in inspections. Statistically speaking, this modification will make life a little easier for those who wish to skirt Australia’s Border Protection laws.
Michael Carmody, chief executive officer of the Australian Customs Service, said that in 2008-09, the target number of containers inspected was 134,000. “The new target under our new approaches will be 101,500.” There will also be reductions in the number of containers physically inspected, from 14,300 in 2008-09 to 14,000 in 2010.
Both X-ray machines and Customs officers play a large role in the inspection process. According to the Australian Customs website, there are around 80 X-ray machines being utilised at various ports, mail-processing facilities and airports around the country, only four of which are capable of X-raying large shipping containers. A fleet of custom-built mobile X-ray inspection vans are also utilised, which allow the organisation to operate in any location.
Inspections, both X-ray and physical, have produced a large cache of seized goods that include drugs, illegal ‘weapons’ (such as slingshots and airsoft toys), wildlife and prohibited foods and organic matter. Since 2002, when the first container examination facility opened, Customs has seized goods including:
• 190kg of heroin
• 8540kg of MDMA or ‘ecstasy’
• 1173kg of crystal methylamphetamine or ‘ice’
• 691kg of cocaine
• 219kg of other amphetamine-type stimulants
• 4008kg of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine
• 3800 litres of precursor chemicals, which can be used in the production of amphetamine-type stimulants
• more than 294 million cigarette sticks
• 650 tonnes of tobacco
Illicit drugs with a street value of more than $1.5 billion have been seized and more than $184 million in revenue evasion has been prevented. There have also been large numbers of detections in relation to copyright, trademark, undeclared goods and quarantine breaches. In the past four years, Customs has seized more than 17,070 undeclared firearms, parts and accessories. In April 2009, a new state-of-the-art storage facility was opened to store these items until they can be destroyed.
SSAA’s concerns
Despite the many successes of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, SSAA National has concerns about the porous nature of our borders, specifically where firearms are concerned. While SSAA National acknowledges that no large cargos of illegal firearms have ever been found, the Association believes that the potential is there. SSAA National representative Tim Bannister said, “It is likely that there are ad-hoc importations of firearms destined to be used by criminals.”
SSAA National contends that most of the illegal firearms (primarily handguns) used by criminals come from the ‘grey’ market, which stems from the reactivation of firearms previously deactivated. SSAA National expressed its concerns regarding the flimsy deactivation process more than a decade ago. Thankfully, these concerns have been met and deactivation methods are now more stringent.
SSAA National has also questioned Customs regarding the procedures currently in place for screening shipping and aircrew arriving into Australia. According to Tim, the concern here is that “there may not be adequate protections against crew bringing contraband into the country”. Regarding this matter, Tim said, “We are currently awaiting a response from Customs and the Office of Home Affairs.”
Australian Customs and Border Protection’s stance
According to a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson, increasing the number of physical inspections is not necessary to improve border control. “Past experience from high-volume inspection of cargo has shown that the vast majority of imports subjected to inspection are low risk. Selections for inspection and examination of sea cargo have continued to be on a risk-assessed basis…All cargo is still electronically risk-assessed and all identified high-risk consignments are physically examined.
“A broad program of inspections and examinations to detect, deter and disrupt the illicit movement of goods across the border is being maintained, ensuring that a significant sample of consignments not identified as a high risk continue to be inspected.”
Customs denies that goods are inspected randomly, saying it uses a high-tech profiling system. The spokesperson said, “Customs and Border Protection uses an intelligence-led, risk-based approach to prevent the movement of prohibited goods across the border.
“This involves a combination of well-trained and highly skilled staff, intelligence analysis and state-of-the-art technology to detect prohibited goods. Consignments arriving in Australia are assessed for risk and selections for examination are made on the basis of these assessments.”
In the May 2009 Senate Estimates, Mr Carmody denied the randomness of inspection and referred to the organisation’s profiling system. “Where we attach priorities to containers and where we have a high-priority basis of intelligence or profiling, they are examined. That will continue to be case under the revised arrangements.”
When asked if Customs physically inspects cargo when it has reason to believe it might find something, Mr Carmody said, “We have what is called ‘priority one’, where we have strong concerns. That does not translate into all of those we find; in fact, in a very small proportion of those do we find items of concern. But we do profile all cargo coming into the country. Those where we have a high level of concern, yes, we will examine them. We will continue to do that under the revised arrangements.”
SmartGate
Protecting Australia’s borders means constant improvements and upgrades are needed. In July 2009, SmartGate, a self-processing option for travellers, was installed in Sydney International Airport and upgrades were completed on SmartGate at the Brisbane International Airport. SmartGate uses ePassport data and face recognition technology to perform the customs and immigration checks usually conducted by a Customs and Border Protection officer.
The Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O’Connor said, “More than 350,000 travellers have now been processed through SmartGate and with the recent completion of SmartGate at the Sydney International Airport and the changes in Brisbane, these numbers will increase significantly.
“The availability of SmartGate at our major international airports primarily completes the implementation phase of this project and puts Australia at the forefront internationally in relation to the use of biometrics at the border.”
The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service
Australian Customs and Border Protection Service’s mission is to manage the security and integrity of Australia’s borders. It does this by working closely with other government and Australian agencies including the Australian Federal Police, Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, Department of Immigration and Citizenship and Department of Defence to detect and deter unlawful movement of goods and people across the border.
It employs more than 6200 people nationally and overseas. It has a fleet of ocean-going patrol vessels and contracts two aerial surveillance providers for civil maritime surveillance and response. Its central office is in Canberra, with seven other offices throughout Australia.
Home > Capital news > Australian Customs and Border Protection Service - protecting Australia’s borders?