{"id":"C2004A01917","name":"Passenger Movement Charge Act 1978","slug":"passenger-movement-charge-act-1978","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":"118 of 1978","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":6535,"registerId":"commonwealth-C2004A01917-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-30","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Short title","content":"#### 1 Short title\n\n  This Act may be cited as the Passenger Movement Charge Act 1978.","sortOrder":0},{"sectionNumber":"2","sectionType":"section","heading":"Commencement","content":"#### 2 Commencement\n\n  This Act shall come into operation on a date to be fixed by Proclamation.","sortOrder":1},{"sectionNumber":"3","sectionType":"section","heading":"Definitions","content":"#### 3 Definitions\n\n  In this Act:\n\n> Collection Act means the Passenger Movement Charge Collection Act 1978.\n\n> external Territory has the same meaning as in the Collection Act.\n\n> Indian Ocean Territory means:\n\n    (a) the Territory of Christmas Island; or\n    (b) the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands.\n\n> installation in the Greater Sunrise special regime area means a resources installation, or a sea installation, that is attached to the seabed in the Greater Sunrise special regime area (within the meaning of the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973).\n\n> resources installation has the same meaning as in subsection 4(1) of the Customs Act 1901.\n\n> sea installation has the same meaning as in subsection 4(1) of the Customs Act 1901.","sortOrder":2},{"sectionNumber":"4","sectionType":"section","heading":"Travel involving intermediate destinations","content":"#### 4 Travel involving intermediate destinations\n\n  (1) For the purposes of this Act, if:\n    (a) a person departs from Australia for an external Territory; and\n    (b) the person is not ordinarily resident in that external Territory; and\n    (c) the person intends, at the time of the departure, to depart from that external Territory for another country, or for an installation in the Greater Sunrise special regime area, within 3 months after the departure from Australia;\n  the first‑mentioned departure is taken to be a departure of the person from Australia for that other country or for that installation, as the case requires.\n  (2) For the purposes of this Act (including subsection (1)), if:\n    (a) a person departs from Australia for another country or for an installation in the Greater Sunrise special regime area; and\n    (b) the person intends, at the time of the departure, to depart from that other country, or from an installation in the Greater Sunrise special regime area, for an external Territory within 7 days after the departure from Australia;\n  the first‑mentioned departure is taken to be a departure from Australia for that external Territory.\n  (3) For the purposes of this Act, if:\n    (a) a person departs from Norfolk Island or an Indian Ocean Territory for another country or for an installation in the Greater Sunrise special regime area; and\n    (b) the person intends, at the time of the departure, to depart from that other country, or from an installation in the Greater Sunrise special regime area, for a place in Australia other than that first‑mentioned Territory within 7 days after the first‑mentioned departure;\n  the first‑mentioned departure is taken not to be a departure from Australia for another country or for an installation in the Greater Sunrise special regime area.\n  (4) For the purposes of this Act, if:\n    (a) a person departs from a part of Australia other than Norfolk Island or an Indian Ocean Territory for another country or for an installation in the Greater Sunrise special regime area; and\n    (b) the person intends, at the time of the departure, to depart from that other country, or from an installation in the Greater Sunrise special regime area, for Norfolk Island or an Indian Ocean Territory within 7 days after the first‑mentioned departure;\n  the first‑mentioned departure is taken not to be a departure from Australia for another country or for an installation in the Greater Sunrise special regime area.","sortOrder":3},{"sectionNumber":"5","sectionType":"section","heading":"Imposition of passenger movement charge","content":"#### 5 Imposition of passenger movement charge\n\n  Charge, called passenger movement charge, is imposed in respect of the departure of a person from Australia:\n    (a) for another country, after the commencement of this Act; or\n    (b) for an installation in the Greater Sunrise special regime area, after the commencement of the Passenger Movement Charge Amendment (Timor Sea Maritime Boundaries Treaty) Act 2019;\n  whether or not the person intends to return to Australia.","sortOrder":4},{"sectionNumber":"6","sectionType":"section","heading":"Rate of passenger movement charge","content":"#### 6 Rate of passenger movement charge\n\n  The rate of charge imposed by this Act in respect of the departure of a person from Australia is $70.","sortOrder":5}],"analysis":{"summary":{"complexity_score":4,"scope_assessment":{"changed":true,"description":"The Act was originally limited to departures for 'another country' (1978). Its scope was expanded in 2019 by the Passenger Movement Charge Amendment (Timor Sea Maritime Boundaries Treaty) Act 2019 to also cover departures to installations in the Greater Sunrise special regime area, reflecting the new maritime boundary arrangements between Australia and Timor-Leste."},"complexity_factors":["Multiple layered rules about intermediate destinations requiring careful reading to determine when a charge applies","Cross-references to other legislation (Passenger Movement Charge Collection Act 1978, Customs Act 1901, Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973)","Distinctions between different categories of Australian territory (external territories, Indian Ocean Territories, Norfolk Island, mainland Australia)","The Greater Sunrise special regime area provisions require understanding of maritime boundary law context","Time-based conditions (3-month and 7-day thresholds) create nuanced scenarios","Circular definitional dependencies between this Act and the Collection Act"],"plain_english_summary":"## Passenger Movement Charge Act 1978\n\n**What is this?**\nThis law imposes a charge (tax) on people who **leave Australia** for another country. You've almost certainly paid this — it's commonly known as the **departure tax** and is currently set at **$70 per person**.\n\n**Who does it affect?**\nEssentially anyone departing Australia for an overseas destination, whether or not they plan to come back. This includes tourists, business travellers, emigrants, and Australian residents.\n\n**The tricky parts — intermediate stops:**\nThe law includes special rules to prevent people from dodging the charge by routing their trip through Australian territories (like Christmas Island or the Cocos Keeling Islands):\n\n- If you leave Australia for an **external territory** (e.g. Christmas Island) but plan to then travel to another country within **3 months**, you're treated as if you left Australia directly for that other country — the charge applies.\n- If you leave Australia heading overseas but plan to stop in an external territory within **7 days**, you're treated as departing for that territory instead (which may affect whether the charge applies).\n- Special rules also apply to travel **from** Norfolk Island or the Indian Ocean Territories (Christmas Island, Cocos Keeling Islands) — short trips via overseas destinations don't automatically trigger the charge.\n\n**The Greater Sunrise area:**\nThere's also a provision covering departures to oil/gas installations in the **Greater Sunrise special regime area** — a maritime zone between Australia and Timor-Leste. This was added in 2019 following a treaty with Timor-Leste.\n\n**Bottom line:** If you're flying or sailing out of Australia to another country, you're paying $70 in departure tax. The complex rules mainly matter if your journey involves Australian island territories as stopovers."},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":4,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"Based solely on the provided text, there is no indication that the Act’s substantive scope has been altered from its own internal statements. The Act imposes a $70 passenger movement charge on departures from Australia to other countries (s.5, s.6), defines how certain intermediate or territory‑linked journeys are treated for charge purposes (s.4), and sets commencement mechanics (s.2). The text does reference a later amendment for coverage of Greater Sunrise installations (s.5(b)), but that is a conditional activation rather than a demonstrated change of scope within the supplied material."},"complexity_factors":["Cross‑references to other statutes for collection mechanics (Passenger Movement Charge Collection Act 1978) and for definitions (Customs Act 1901) (s.3).","Multiple territory‑specific treatment rules with different time windows (3 months and 7 days) that recharacterise departures for charge‑purposes (s.4(1)‑(4)).","A fixed monetary rate set in the Act rather than a formula, which simplifies calculation but creates behavioural substitution incentives (s.6).","Staggered commencement features: general commencement by proclamation (s.2) and delayed/conditional coverage for Greater Sunrise installations tied to a named amendment (s.5(b)).","Definitions that rely on external statutory meanings (external Territory, installation, Indian Ocean Territory), increasing interpretive dependency (s.3).","Absence in this text of collection procedure details (delegated to the Collection Act), which requires reading multiple instruments to understand compliance duties (s.3)."],"plain_english_summary":"### What this Act does, in plain terms\n\n- The Act creates a fixed fee called the passenger movement charge that applies when a person leaves Australia for another country or, in a later commencement, for an installation in the Greater Sunrise special regime area (see s.5).  The charge amount is set at $70 (see s.6).\n\n- The charge applies to a person’s departure whether or not they plan to return to Australia (see s.5).  The Act does not set out collection mechanics here; it cross‑refers to the Passenger Movement Charge Collection Act 1978 in its definitions (see s.3).\n\n- The Act contains rules that change how certain departures are treated for the purpose of applying the charge, depending on travel involving external Territories, Norfolk Island, or Indian Ocean Territories and on the traveller’s stated intentions and short timeframes (see s.4).  Those rules determine whether an intermediate stop counts as the effective departure from Australia for charge purposes.\n\n- The Act comes into force on a date set by proclamation (see s.2).  One of its charge‑triggers (departures to installations in the Greater Sunrise special regime area) is tied to a later amendment (the Passenger Movement Charge Amendment (Timor Sea Maritime Boundaries Treaty) Act 2019) and so takes effect after that amendment (see s.5(b)).\n\n### Who pays and who decides\n\n- Who pays: the person who departs Australia for another country or (after the amendment takes effect) for an installation in the Greater Sunrise special regime area (see s.5 and s.6).\n\n- Who decides timing: the government chooses the Act’s start date by proclamation (see s.2).  The regime’s coverage for Greater Sunrise installations depends on the later amendment identified in s.5(b).\n\n### How the travel‑rules work (mechanics)\n\n- If a traveller leaves Australia for an external Territory but is not ordinarily resident there and intends at the time of departure to continue to a third country or to a Greater Sunrise installation within 3 months, the law treats the first departure as if it were a direct departure from Australia to that third destination (s.4(1)).\n\n- If a person leaves Australia for another country or a Greater Sunrise installation and intends to leave that place for an external Territory within 7 days, the original departure is treated as a departure from Australia for that external Territory (s.4(2)).\n\n- Conversely, departures from Norfolk Island or an Indian Ocean Territory to another country or a Greater Sunrise installation that will return to Australia within 7 days are treated as not being departures from Australia for those destinations (s.4(3)).  Similarly, departures from mainland Australia for another country or Greater Sunrise installations where the traveller intends to go to Norfolk Island or an Indian Ocean Territory within 7 days are treated as not a departure from Australia for those destinations (s.4(4)).\n\n### Testing likely policy effects against practical trade‑offs and implementation points\n\n- Revenue burden and incidence: the Act imposes a flat $70 charge on each qualifying departure; the direct payer is each departing person (s.5, s.6).  The measure’s revenue effect is concentrated on travellers; the text does not scale the charge to trip length, fare class or purpose, so the per‑person cash burden is the same across trips (s.6).\n\n- Incentives and substitution: because the charge is a fixed dollar amount per departure, travellers facing marginal travel decisions may respond by changing routes or timings.  The Act’s detailed rules for external Territories and short connecting‑periods (s.4) create concrete windows in which routing can change whether a journey is chargeable — that produces opportunities for behavioural substitution (s.4).\n\n- Administrative discretion and timing risk: commencement is by proclamation (s.2), so the executive controls when the Act starts.  Coverage for departures to Greater Sunrise installations depends on a separately named amendment (s.5(b)), introducing an additional timing dependency.\n\n- Compliance and collection burden: the Act imposes the charge but does not set out collection procedures here; it defines the Collection Act in s.3, indicating collection rules are located elsewhere.  That separation concentrates legal rules about liability in this Act and collection procedures in another instrument (s.3).\n\n- Cross‑reference and definition dependence: the Act relies on definitions and meanings from other legislation (for example, the Collection Act and the Customs Act for installation definitions; s.3).  This creates implementation dependence on other statutory texts for precise operational definitions (s.3).\n\n- Trade‑offs and opportunity cost: a flat per‑person charge is administratively simple (single rate at s.6) but does not discriminate between high‑value and low‑value trips, which is a trade‑off between simplicity and targeting.  The territorial travel rules (s.4) reduce some routes that would otherwise avoid the charge but add temporal complexity for travellers and administrators.\n\n### Key implementation and compliance points to watch\n\n- The effective start date (s.2) and the later activation for Greater Sunrise installations (s.5(b)).\n- The treatment of departures involving external Territories, Norfolk Island, and Indian Ocean Territories with 3‑month and 7‑day windows (s.4).  These rules determine whether particular itineraries are chargeable.\n- Collection rules are delegated to the Collection Act referenced in s.3; practical collection obligations and liable collectors are therefore set out outside this text.\n\n(References are to numbered sections in the provided Act text.)"},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[],"contradictions":[]},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":4,"scope_assessment":{"changed":true,"description":"Originally enacted in 1978 as a simple departure tax for international travel, the legislation has expanded beyond its original scope. The 2019 amendment (referenced in section 5(b)) extended the charge to cover departures for installations in the Greater Sunrise special regime area following the Timor Sea Maritime Boundaries Treaty. This transformed a straightforward international travel tax into one also covering specific offshore resource installations, adding significant geographic and technical complexity."},"complexity_factors":["Multiple defined terms (6 definitions) that cross-reference other Acts (Collection Act, Customs Act 1901, Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973)","Four subsections of conditional 'deeming' rules in section 4 that create fictional departures for tax purposes based on traveller intent and timing","Nested time conditions (3 months vs 7 days depending on direction of travel)","Geographic complexity involving distinctions between: mainland Australia, external Territories, Norfolk Island, Indian Ocean Territories, and the Greater Sunrise special regime area","Amendment-triggered commencement (section 5(b)) creating dual commencement dates for different geographic scopes"],"plain_english_summary":"This law creates a **departure tax** (called the 'passenger movement charge') that you must pay when leaving Australia.\n\n**What it does:**\n- Charges **$70** every time a person departs Australia for another country\n- Also applies when departing for certain offshore oil/gas installations in the Timor Sea (the 'Greater Sunrise special regime area')\n- Applies whether or not you plan to return to Australia\n\n**Who it affects:**\n- Anyone leaving Australia for overseas (tourists, business travellers, Australians going on holiday, foreign visitors leaving)\n- People working on or visiting specific offshore resources installations in the Timor Sea\n\n**Special rules for complex travel:**\nThe Act includes tricky rules about 'transit' travel to stop people avoiding the charge:\n- If you fly from mainland Australia to an external Territory (like Christmas Island) intending to leave for overseas within 3 months, you're treated as leaving Australia directly (so you pay the charge)\n- If you leave Australia for overseas but intend to visit an external Territory within 7 days, you're treated as going to that Territory instead (potentially avoiding the charge)\n- Similar rules apply in reverse for Norfolk Island and the Indian Ocean Territories\n\n**Why it matters:**\nThis is essentially Australia's **'exit tax'** on international travel. It generates significant revenue for the government (collected by airlines when you buy your ticket). The 2019 amendment extended it to cover the Greater Sunrise offshore gas field area following a treaty with Timor-Leste."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/passenger-movement-charge-act-1978","history":"/api/acts/passenger-movement-charge-act-1978/history","analysis":"/api/acts/passenger-movement-charge-act-1978/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/passenger-movement-charge-act-1978/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/passenger-movement-charge-act-1978/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/passenger-movement-charge-act-1978/documents"}}