Australian Customs Service
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The Australian Customs Service (ACS) is responsible for overseeing international movement of trade goods and people into Australia, for the collection of customs and excises, for undertaking border management activities, and for detecting drugs coming into the country.
Additionally, the Australian Customs Service manages the security and integrity of Australia's borders working closely with other government and international agencies, in particular the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and the Department of Defence, to detect and deter unlawful movement of goods and people across the border.
The Australian Customs Service is an Australian Federal Government agency employing over 4,800 people in Australia and overseas. It has a fleet of ocean-going patrol vessels and contracts two aerial surveillance providers for civil maritime surveillance and response. Customs works particularly closely with the Australian Federal Police and Australia's National Security agencies.
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[edit] Techniques and technology used
Sophisticated techniques and technology are used to target high-risk aircraft, vessels, cargo, postal items and travellers. This includes intelligence analysis, computer-based analysis, detector dogs, Container X-Ray facilities, port based closed circuit television monitors and other means. Clients of Customs include the Australian community, the Government, industry, travellers and other government agencies.
[edit] SmartGate
SmartGate is a unique automated border processing system being introduced by the Australian Customs Service and it is a world first. SmartGate is a secure and simple system that performs the customs and immigration checks normally made by a Customs Officer when a person arrives in Australia.
SmartGate takes a live image of the face and using facial recognition technology matches this image with the digitised image stored in an E-Passport. SmartGate will also undertake immigration and customs checks. If there is a successful match, the traveller is cleared through the Customs control point. If there is not a successful match the traveller is be referred to a Customs Officer.
Eligible Australian ePassport holders and holders of eligible International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) compliant E-passports from other countries will be able to use SmartGate. SmartGate Series 1 will be introduced into the first Australian international airport in February 2007 and will then become available at other international airports around the country based on the rate of uptake of the new ePassport. The Australian Government has committed $61.7 million over the next four years towards the rollout of SmartGate. SmartGate is currently being live trialled using volunteer crew from certain airlines and Australian Government Employees.
[edit] Detector Dog Breeding Program
In 1969, Australian Customs had only two dogs, recruitment being from animal shelters, dog pounds and people with unwanted pets. From these early beginnings the program continued to grow throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
By the early 1990s, the growth in the Detector Dog Program had led to difficulties in sourcing sufficient quality dogs to supply the program. The solution was the development of the Customs detector dog breeding program to produce a reliable, high quality supply of dogs. This development included research into the best breed of dog to meet the requirements of Customs across a range of criteria, with the Labrador breed being selected for their focus, versatility, temperament, and strong hunt and retrieve drives.
An intensive three-year study, conducted in conjunction with University of Melbourne and the Royal Guide Dogs Associations of Australia at the Customs National Breeding and Development Centre in Melbourne, identified the required genetics for breeding and the best environmental influences for development of detector dogs. In early 1993 a three-year pilot-breeding program commenced using Labradors purchased from the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia and leading Labrador breeders.
This breeding program is now the only source for Australian Customs detector dogs and is one of only a handful of specialised Detector Dog Breeding Programs in the world. Today, many other agencies use dogs bred by Customs, including the Australian Federal Police, Australian Army, Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, State and Territory police. Customs bred dogs have been deployed in a variety of fields including arson detection, food detection or explosives/firearms detection. Australian Drug Detector Dogs have been provided to various nations under Regional Assistance Programs managed by AUSAID (the Australian Federal Government Overseas Aid Agency).
[edit] APEC 2007
Australia is hosting the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in 2007. The ACS is involved in APEC through participating in various forums and ensuring delivery of its security requirements.
ACS will be organising, hosting and chairing a number of meetings and committees related to Customs and Trade matters
The ACS will also maintain the border security role during the 2007 APEC year with a particular focus leading up to and during the week in September 2007 when world leaders from the 21 APEC Member Economies will meet in Sydney.
