Infringement notices

A new Infringement notice scheme for minor offences will be introduced on 1 April 2019. From that time Customs officers will be able to issue on-the-spot notices to anyone not complying with requirements.

What do you need to know?

• The new Infringement notice scheme replaces the petty offences regime. It allows for a proportionate response to minor offending, and will be more time and cost effective to process than the current petty offences regime.
• The new scheme doesn’t come into effect until 1 April 2019. For this six month period, the petty offences will be gone and Customs will use the time to educate those who may receive infringements about their obligations under the new Act. Warnings will be issued during this time but other sanctions will still apply.
• From 1 April 2019, Customs officers will be able to issue on-the-spot infringement notices
• The fee for an infringement is prescribed in legislation – $400 for an individual and $800 for a body corporate
• The new scheme will be more transparent for offenders as the fee is set in advance in legislation, and because the offences are strict liability, no admission of guilt is required.

Who does this impact?

• International arriving and departing passengers (air and sea)
• Importers
• Exporters
• Excise manufacturers
• CCAs
• Brokers.

What is the impact?

As an example, anyone in a Customs-controlled area, which could be a port, airport, storage or transit facilitator or excisable goods manufacturing area, may be fined on the spot for not complying with requests from Customs officers.

More information

• the Act education pages
• Infringement webpages
• Infringements under the new act  (PDF 94 KB)