News

Two men have been charged for their alleged role in trafficking the drugs, which have an estimated street value of $898 million. In January 2017, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) provided intelligence to Victoria Police Clandestine Laboratory Squad about a makeshift facility operating in Box Hill. As a result, AFP and the Clandestine Laboratory Squad […]

Back in July last year we reported on the ABF’s focus on illegal asbestos importation. (See https://www.collessyoung.com.au/news.html/2016/07/23/abfasbestos/ ). Now they have announced stricter new measures targeting imported vehicles that may contain asbestos. Most countries allow low amounts or particular types of asbestos, and goods manufactured overseas can be labelled ‘asbestos free’ and still contain a […]

On 20 March 2017, the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resource, the Hon. Barnaby Joyce MP, announced the Australian Government’s decision to introduce changes to the management of imported food safety risks through a package of legislative and non-legislative reforms. The minister said comprehensive changes would be introduced to give Australian consumers greater assurance at […]

The Illegal Logging Compliance Statement and the Illegal Logging Compliance Plan 2017 have now been published on the federal government’s Agriculture website.[1] The laws affect businesses that import regulated timber and timber products of specific Customs tariff codes within Chapters 44 (wood and wood articles), 47 (pulp), 48 (paper and paperboard) and 94 (furniture) into […]

On Monday, February 27, a sea cargo consignment that arrived in Sydney from the USA was targeted and examined by Australian Border Force (ABF) officers, who discovered a white substance concealed within 396 bottles labelled as protein powder. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) then began a ‘controlled operation,’ which involved the delivery of the consignment […]

Prawn farmers on the Logan River in southeast Queensland have had to destroy stock worth more than $25 million since ‘white spot’ was detected there in November. The Australian Prawn Farming Association is demanding an urgent Senate Inquiry on the matter, while also exploring class-action lawsuits against importers and the Government, who ignored their warnings […]

Trade facilitation looks at how procedures and controls governing the movement of goods across national borders can be improved to reduce associated cost burdens and maximise efficiency, while safeguarding legitimate regulatory objectives. Estimates show that the full implementation of the TFA could reduce trade costs by an average of 14.3% and boost global trade by […]

Back on 12th November 2016, we reported on the government’s intention to remove the ‘De Minimis Level’ for GST on imports. Now the legislation has been introduced into Parliament and is due to take effect from 1st July 2017. Basically, it will give effect to the 2016-17 Budget decision to apply GST to ‘low value’ […]

The Australian Border Force (ABF) initially detected the stash of drugs when they used their new advanced x-ray to scan a shipping container from South Africa that was discharged at the Port of Melbourne last December 15. Even though the smugglers had covered the illicit drugs with shards of charcoal – a technique that tricks […]

The figures are good news for the Federal Government with exports now likely to make a solid contribution to economic growth and dispel fears of a “technical” recession caused by a second successive quarter of shrinking GDP.  The Bureau of Statistics figures showed that the value of exports jumped by a solid 5 per cent […]