Two of the highest taxed goods that enter Australia are tobacco and alcohol. Today the Sydney Morning Herald reported that 2 million packets of cigarettes disappeared from a Customs warehouse [also known in the industry as a Section 79] in 2018.

Over the years more and more shipments are sold on an informal Delivered At Place [DAP] basis. The importer makes contact with overseas suppliers who in-turn offer a one-stop packaged price; a door-to-door price which in real terms is referred to by Incoterms 2020 as DAP.

Yes, I will show my age in this opinion piece [or maybe I will show my 23 years of experience], in the “olden days” we could take our Quarantine files to a Quarantine office, take a ticket, wait to be called and then sit in front of a Quarantine officer and have all of our entries processed.

In Australia the Customs Act 1901 does not require a Licensed Customs Broker [LCB] to submit an Export Declaration Number [EDN] to the Australian Border Force [ABF]. An EDN is required for (1) goods that are exported from Australia which are over $2000 AUD, (2) goods that are covered by an export permit or (3) for goods that will require a drawback of import duty. An EDN can be submitted to the ABF in less than a few minutes but can be audited by the ABF from the moment of submission and for the next five [5] years.

Australia’s major container ports in most cases have been leased for a lifetime; Melbourne, Port Botany, Brisbane, Darwin, Adelaide have all been leased for 99 years, Newcastle has been leased for 98 years and Fremantle has recently renewed leases only for a further 10 years. State governments generally tend to sell their ports to reduce their state’s debt. There was a time where ports were thought of as being part of a nation’s national security. The last major Australian mainland container port which has not been sold for a lifetime is Fremantle. The Tasmanian Government still owns all of their ports.