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2002
(Circulated by authority of the Minister for Agriculture,
Fisheries and Forestry,
the Hon Warren Truss MP
GENERAL OUTLINE
The Bill seeks to amend the
Horticulture Marketing and Research and Development Services Act 2000
(HMRDS Act) to deem Horticulture Australia Limited (HAL) as the export
control body under the HMRDS Act to be a Commonwealth agency for the purposes of
section 16 of the Customs Administration Act 1985 (Customs Act).
Currently HAL is given the function of administering export controls on behalf
of horticultural industries as the company has been declared the export control
body under subsection 9(2) the HMRDS Act.
HAL commenced business on 1
February 2001 taking over the functions previously undertaken by the
Horticultural Research & Development Corporation, the Australian
Horticultural Corporation (AHC) and the Australian Dried Fruits Board. HAL is
an industry owned company that the Commonwealth has entered into arrangements
with for delivery of marketing and research and development services to
the horticulture industry.
The AHC previously administered export
controls on behalf of horticultural industries. During the period of its
operation the AHC could access information from the Australian Customs Service
(ACS) EXIT database to enable it to exercise appropriate management over the use
of export control powers. While the AHC did not have powers to prosecute under
legislation on export controls, information obtained from ACS could be provided
to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to enable the DPP to prosecute
exporters contravening the export controls.
As HAL does not meet the
criteria of a Commonwealth Agency under Section 16 of the Customs Act,
the ACS has advised HAL that it is no longer able to provide information from
its EXIT database to the company. Yet the intention of the HMRDS Act is that
the export control body (namely, HAL) should be able to exercise similar (but no
greater) powers to those exercised by the former AHC and thus should be able to
obtain access to Customs EXIT database information.
The proposed
Horticulture Marketing and Research and Development Services Amendment Bill 2002
amends the HMRDS Act to deem HAL, as the export control body, to be a
Commonwealth agency for the purposes of Section 16 of the Customs
Administration Act 1985. This amendment will ensure that HAL can exercise
appropriate management over current export control powers in place and any
future export controls that may be put in place, by being able to access
information in the ACS EXIT database to show evidence of any breaches that may
have occurred in contravention of the export controls.
FINANCIAL
IMPACT STATEMENT
The Bill has no financial implications for the
Commonwealth.
NOTES ON CLAUSES
Short
title
The short title of the Bill is the Horticulture
Marketing and Research and Development Services (Amendment) Bill
2002.
Commencement
The commencement date is set to be on
the day that the Bill receives Royal
Assent.
Schedule
Schedule 1 specifies that an amendment is
made to the Horticulture Marketing and Research and Development Services Act
2000 to provide for Horticulture Australia Limited, in its capacity as the
industry export control body, to be a Commonwealth agency for the purposes of
section 16 of the Customs Administration Act 1985 to enable Horticulture
Australia Limited access to information from the Australian Customs
Service.