Imported Food Charges (Imposition—Customs) Act 2015

The Act operates through a small set of interlocking concepts. The statutory text itself is the only source for these concepts.

• Prescribed matter connected with administration of the Imported Food Control Act 1992: The Act repeatedly ties the legal power to the administration of the Imported Food Control Act 1992. Section 6(1) authorises charges in relation to a “prescribed matter connected with the administration” of that Act. The Act does not define “prescribed matter” internally, thereby leaving the content of that concept to the regulations.

• Charge imposed as a tax: Section 6(2) expressly states that the charges prescribed for the purposes of s 6(1) are imposed as taxes. That legal characterisation appears to be a statutory label; the Act makes no additional tax‑law provision or mechanism itself.

• Constitutional qualification, duty of customs: Section 6(4) restricts the operation of the imposition to the extent that the charge is a “duty of customs” as that phrase is used in section 55 of the Constitution. The text therefore incorporates a constitutional boundary into the legislative permission to impose charges.

• Amount and method: Section 7(1) allows the regulations to fix a charge either by specifying a precise amount or by prescribing a method for calculating the amount. That splits regulatory design between fixed schedules and formulaic/method‑based approaches.

• Ministerial cost‑recovery check: Section 7(2) requires that before the Governor‑General makes regulations prescribing a charge, the Minister must be satisfied that the charge is set at a level designed to recover no more than the Commonwealth’s likely costs in connection with the prescribed matter. The Act places an affirmative administrative threshold on the making of regulations.

• Liability and exemptions: Sections 8 and 9 leave the question of who is liable and whether exemptions apply to subordinate legislation. Section 8 allows regulations to prescribe one or more persons who are liable to pay a specified charge; section 9 allows regulations to provide exemptions.

• Regulation‑making power: Section 10 grants the Governor‑General power to make regulations to prescribe matters required or permitted by the Act or necessary or convenient to carry out the Act.

• Separation of collection functions: The Act explicitly references the Imported Food Charges (Collection) Act 2015 for collection-related matters (note under s 8), signalling that collection and enforcement are intended to be handled under separate statutory arrangements.

• Territorial and Crown scope: Section 3 binds the Crown to the Act; section 4 ties territorial application to whether the Imported Food Control Act 1992 extends to those external territories; section 5 preserves the constitutional protection that a State’s property is not to be taxed by the Commonwealth (invoking s 114 of the Constitution).

These core concepts determine the scope of authorisation (regulatory charges connected to imported food administration), the legal character of the charge (a tax), the constitutional constraints (duties of customs; no tax on State property), and the division of responsibilities between ministerial satisfaction, Governor‑General regulation‑making, and a separate collection Act.

The Act delegates the identification of affected persons to subordinate instruments and so by design leaves the immediate, concrete question of who will pay to the regulations. Section 8 expressly authorises regulations to prescribe one or more persons who are liable to pay a specified charge prescribed under section 6(1). That means the Act itself does not identify classes of liable persons; it permits regulation drafters to allocate liability (for example, to importers, customs agents, consignors, freight forwarders, or other actors), but the Act does not specify which of those or other categories will actually be captured.

Because the charges are to be imposed in relation to “prescribed matters connected with the administration” of the Imported Food Control Act 1992 (s 6(1)), the direct targets are those involved in imported food transactions or in the administratively relevant activities that the regulations specify. Practical effect depends on how “prescribed matters” are framed in regulations: the drafters may choose to tie charges to goods, declarations, inspections, testing, certification, quarantine actions, or other administratively relevant events or statuses, but none of those specifics are contained in the Act text.

The Act binds the Crown in each capacity (s 3), so the Commonwealth is not excluded from the operation of charges by the usual sovereign immunity; subject to any other statutory or constitutional exclusions, the Crown can be within the ambit of regulations under this Act. Conversely, section 5 preserves the constitutional protection that the Act does not impose a tax on property of a State (invoking the meaning in s 114 of the Constitution). The Act therefore signals that State property cannot be taxed under this regime.

Territorial application is conditional: section 4 provides the Act does not extend to Norfolk Island, Christmas Island or the Cocos (Keeling) Islands unless the Imported Food Control Act 1992 extends to that Territory. The identity of affected persons in those Territories depends on whether the primary Act extends to them.

Finally, because the Act declares the charges to be taxes (s 6(2)), entities that are within the regulatory definition of liable persons will be subject to charges that are legally treated as taxes. That legal classification can have downstream effects (for example, accounting, treatment in contracts and pricing), but the Act itself leaves those interactions to be addressed elsewhere or by regulation.

In short, the Act authorises regulation drafters to determine who pays; it affects any person prescribed as liable under the regulations (s 8), binds the Crown (s 3), excludes State property from taxation under the Act (s 5), and is territorially conditional (s 4). The collection and enforcement mechanisms that concretely determine how affected persons are required to account and pay are delegated to the Imported Food Charges (Collection) Act 2015 (note under s 8).

The Act creates a framework of duties and administrative preconditions that rest principally on the executive and on regulation‑making, and it leaves individual rights largely to be specified by regulation or by the separate collection Act.

Primary duties in the Act text

• Ministerial satisfaction before regulation‑making: Section 7(2) imposes a duty on the Minister to be satisfied that an amount prescribed by regulation is designed to recover no more than the Commonwealth’s likely costs in connection with the prescribed matter. The timing is explicit: that satisfaction must exist before the Governor‑General makes the regulations prescribing a charge under s 6(1). The Act places a pre‑regulatory, evidentiary hurdle on the Minister and effectively makes the Minister’s satisfaction a condition precedent for the legal validity of the regulations that prescribe charges.

• Regulation‑making by the Governor‑General: Section 10 authorises the Governor‑General to make regulations for matters required or permitted by the Act, and for matters necessary or convenient to carry out or give effect to the Act. The practical duty to draft and make the regulations falls to the appropriate executive machinery, but the Act formalises that step as the mechanism for effecting charges, liability, exemptions and ancillary details.

• Specification of liability and exemptions: Sections 8 and 9 make it a regulatory duty to identify liable persons and to provide exemptions where the regulations allow. The Act leaves the substance of those duties to subordinate lawmakers.

Rights and constraints expressed or implicit in the Act

• Constitutional constraint on scope: Section 6(4) limits the power to prescribe charges to the extent that the charge is a duty of customs under the Constitution. That constraint operates as a legal right of those potentially affected: if a charge falls outside the constitutional definition of duty of customs, it will not be supported by this Act.

• Protection for State property: Section 5 asserts that the Act does not impose a tax on property of a State. That creates a legal protection for State property within the ambit of the Act.

• No express individual procedural rights in the Act: The Act does not itself provide appeal, review, refund, or objection rights. It does not specify periods for payment, sanctions, interest, or recovery procedures. Those provisions are not present in this Act and the reader is explicitly directed to the Imported Food Charges (Collection) Act 2015 for collection related matters (note under s 8). Any individual procedural rights will therefore depend on the content of the regulations and of the separate collection Act, not this Act.

• Ministerial discretion with an accountability point: The requirement in s 7(2) that the Minister be satisfied about cost recovery places a formal accountability step on the executive. The Act does not specify standards for how that satisfaction is to be documented, disclosed, or reviewed, so the duty creates an administrative threshold but leaves the process and any associated rights to be governed by other law or administrative practice.

• Regulatory discretion: Sections 6-10 give substantial discretion to regulation drafters to set amounts, methods, liability, and exemptions. Those powers create potential rights to those swept up by regulations only insofar as the regulations provide them; the Act itself does not entrench rights such as exemptions, caps beyond cost recovery, or specified refund mechanisms.

In sum, the Act establishes executive duties mainly in the pre‑conditions and regulation‑making process, places constitutional limits on the substantive reach of charges, provides a shield for State property, and delegates the detailed duties and individual rights to regulations and the separate collection Act.

The Act contains no provisions that create penalties, define offences, or provide enforcement or collection mechanisms. The text leaves collection and enforcement to separate legislative instruments and to regulations. This absence is explicit in the Act: the note under section 8 directs users to the Imported Food Charges (Collection) Act 2015 for matters related to the collection of charges prescribed under s 6(1). Therefore, the Act itself does not prescribe consequences for non‑payment, interest, debt recovery, administrative penalties, criminal offences, or other enforcement tools.

Because the Act treats the prescribed charges as taxes (s 6(2)), any enforcement would ordinarily be expected to follow the collection and enforcement framework established under the separate collection Act and under the regulations made pursuant to this Act. However, this Act does not supply those mechanisms and contains no cross‑references to specific recovery procedures, penalty scales, administrative review paths, or procedural protections.

Legal limits on enforcement arising from the Act

• Constitutional boundary: Section 6(4) restricts imposition of a charge to the extent it is a duty of customs under section 55 of the Constitution. That constraint is relevant to enforcement because any attempt to enforce a charge that is not a duty of customs could be open to constitutional objection. The Act therefore embeds a substantive legal limit that may bear on the lawfulness of enforcement measures.

• State property exclusion: Section 5 preserves the constitutional rule that the Act does not impose a tax on State property. Enforcement directed at State property therefore engages constitutional considerations.

Where to find penalties and enforcement

• The Act signals that collection is governed by the Imported Food Charges (Collection) Act 2015 (note under s 8). Practitioners and affected persons therefore need to consult that collection Act and the regulations made under both Acts to understand payment deadlines, filing obligations, recovery procedures, sanctions for non‑payment, and remedies such as objection or review.

Practical implication for advisers

• Because enforcement is outsourced to other instruments, those advising affected persons should not treat this Act as containing enforcement provisions. To assess compliance risk and potential sanctions, one must read the regulations made under this Act and the separate collection Act. The Act creates the taxability, the regulatory mechanism to define liability and exemptions, and an administrative constraint in s 7(2), but it does not itself create enforcement tools.

The Act is explicitly designed to operate in close relation to a small number of other instruments and legal constraints; the text itself identifies key interactions.

Imported Food Control Act 1992

• The Act ties the operative subject matter to the Imported Food Control Act 1992. Section 6(1) authorises charges “in relation to a prescribed matter connected with the administration of the Imported Food Control Act 1992.” Section 4 explicitly ties territorial application to the territorial extent of the Imported Food Control Act 1992. Therefore the substantive content of the new charge regime is conceptually and functionally connected to the existing imported food regulatory regime under the Imported Food Control Act 1992: the charge must be connected with that Act’s administration.

Imported Food Charges (Collection) Act 2015

• The Act repeatedly signals that collection is to be handled separately. The commencement of sections 3-10 is conditional on the commencement of the Imported Food Charges (Collection) Act 2015 (s 2 and its table). Section 8 contains a note directing readers to the Imported Food Charges (Collection) Act 2015 for matters related to collection. Practically, this Act is the enabling skeleton; the Collection Act supplies the collection machinery, and the two Acts are intended to operate together.

Constitutional provisions

• Section 6(4) incorporates a constitutional limitation by stating the section imposes a charge “only so far as that charge is a duty of customs within the meaning of section 55 of the Constitution.” That links the permitted scope of charges to constitutional jurisprudence and means charges beyond duties of customs would not be authorised by this Act. Section 5 invokes section 114 of the Constitution indirectly by defining “property of any kind belonging to a State” with reference to s 114, and by declaring the Act does not impose a tax on a State’s property. These constitutional references operate as constraints that may affect both the substance of any regulations and their enforceability.

Other subordinate law and administrative practice

• The Act authorises the Governor‑General to make regulations (s 10). The content of those regulations will govern who is liable (s 8), the amount and method (s 7(1)), exemptions (s 9), and other necessary matters. Because the Act does not itself define procedural or enforcement provisions, the regulations and the Collection Act will be the primary documents for operational interaction with other statutory schemes, such as customs declaration requirements, quarantine and inspection rules under the Imported Food Control Act 1992, and any other administrative frameworks that govern imported goods.

Tax law interaction

• The Act labels the prescribed charges as taxes (s 6(2)). That label may interact with general tax treatment in other statutory or administrative contexts (for example, accounting, financial reporting, or cross‑instrument offsets), but the Act does not itself elaborate those interactions. Whether and how other tax statutes or financial rules treat these charges will depend on those regimes and on the regulatory instruments that implement the charges.

Summary

• The Act is not a freestanding code. It is an enabling provision tightly linked to the Imported Food Control Act 1992, contingent upon and designed to operate in tandem with the Imported Food Charges (Collection) Act 2015 for collection and enforcement, and constrained by constitutional features cited in the text (s 6(4) and s 5). The practical legal architecture for operation and compliance will therefore be spread across this Act, the implementing regulations under s 10, and the Collection Act.

The text provided contains only the original enactment and its original commencement schedule. The Act’s commencement table (reproduced in s 2 and its attached table) sets out the initial commencement dates and conditions applicable at the time of enactment. The table shows:

• Sections 1 and 2, and anything not elsewhere covered by the table, commenced on the day the Act received Royal Assent, recorded in the original table as 29 June 2015 (s 2 and the accompanying table entry for item 1).

• Sections 3 to 10 were scheduled to commence on the later of: (a) the start of the day after Royal Assent, and (b) immediately after the commencement of the Imported Food Charges (Collection) Act 2015, but with an explicit caveat that these provisions would not commence at all if the event in paragraph (b) did not occur (s 2 and the accompanying table entry for item 2). The accompanying table entries and notes state these details are part of the commencement information as originally enacted.

The Act includes a caution that the commencement table relates only to provisions as originally enacted and will not be amended in the table to deal with later amendments (s 2 note). The table also contains an administrative note that any information in column 3 is not part of the Act and may be edited in published versions (s 2(2)).

Beyond the original commencement entries and the statutory text itself, no further amendment history, later legislative amendments, or reprints are contained in the source text provided. The Act therefore, according to the supplied material, stands as originally enacted with the described staged commencement mechanism and the components set out in Parts 1-3. Any subsequent legislative changes, disallowance of regulations, or judicial interpretation would not be visible in the supplied text.

Users should therefore treat the supplied text as the statute in its original enacted form and should consult official consolidated or reprinted legislation databases to check for amendments, repeals, or substituted provisions that may have occurred after the original enactment date recorded in the commencement table.

The Act text supplied contains no references to litigation, judicial decisions, or court proceedings. It does not name any cases, and there are no internal annotations or schedules that record challenges to the Act or to regulations made under it. The only legal references in the text are to constitutional sections (section 55 and section 114 of the Constitution) used to qualify the Act’s operation in sections 6(4) and 5(2).

Given the absence of any litigation material in this source, there is no litigation history to report from the document itself. Any judicial consideration, interpretation, or challenge to the Act, the regulations made under it, or related collection provisions would need to be identified by searching case law databases, law reports or consolidated legislation repositories outside the supplied text.

Practitioners relying on this Act should therefore treat the statutory text as the primary source and, where litigation risk or constitutional validity is a consideration, carry out targeted searches for cases addressing:

• the constitutional meaning and scope of “duty of customs” in section 55 in relation to similar charge or tax schemes (relevant because of s 6(4)); and

• any judicial review claims that may have been brought against regulations made under this Act or against actions taken under the Imported Food Charges (Collection) Act 2015 (relevant because enforcement and collection are assigned to that Act).

Those searches are necessary because the Act itself contains no record of litigation history.

This Act is short and deliberately skeletal; several features in the text create practical traps or points requiring attention, all grounded in the Act’s wording.

1. Conditional commencement tied to the Collection Act (s 2)

• Sections 3-10 only commence on the later of a specific day after Royal Assent and immediately after commencement of the Imported Food Charges (Collection) Act 2015, and do not commence at all if that latter event does not occur. The effect is that the main operative powers could fail to come into force if the Collection Act does not commence. Practitioners must check whether those provisions actually commenced in the operation of law, rather than assuming the enabling provisions are in force.

2. Delegation of all substantive detail to regulations (ss 6-10)

• The Act authorises charges, sets high‑level constraints, and leaves amount, liability, exemptions and other details to regulation. The content, therefore, of the charges, their incidence, calculation methods, and exemptions are not in the Act. This creates uncertainty until regulations are published.

3. Minister’s satisfaction as condition precedent (s 7(2))

• Section 7(2) requires the Minister to be satisfied about cost recovery “before the Governor‑General makes regulations” prescribing a charge. The Act does not specify how that satisfaction is to be evidenced, recorded, or reviewed. That raises questions about administrative process and proof of compliance with the statutory precondition, including whether a failure to document satisfaction could be a basis for legal challenge to regulations.

4. Charges labelled taxes but constrained to duties of customs (ss 6(2) and 6(4))

• The Act declares the prescribed charges to be taxes (s 6(2)) but then qualifies their imposition to the extent they are duties of customs under the Constitution (s 6(4)). The interplay of these two statements could create legal friction if a regulation purports to create a tax‑style charge that is argued to fall outside constitutional duties of customs. Legal advice will be needed where the scope of a particular charge is uncertain.

5. No enforcement or penalty provisions in this Act (note under s 8)

• The Act contains no collection, recovery, interest, or penalty mechanics. The practical ability to enforce non‑payment depends on the separate Collection Act and on regulations. Failure to examine those instruments could leave affected persons unaware of the real consequences.

6. Liability is regulable and potentially multiple (s 8)

• The regulations may prescribe one or more persons as liable to pay a specified charge. That can produce allocation choices and possibly duplicate obligations (s 6(3) permits two or more charges in relation to the same prescribed matter). Entities could find themselves liable under different regulatory hooks if drafters do not coordinate allocation rules carefully.

7. Exemptions discretionary and not guaranteed (s 9)

• Section 9 allows regulations to provide exemptions, but not to require them. Whether exemptions exist, and on what terms, depends entirely on the regulations.

8. Territorial limits tied to Imported Food Control Act 1992 (s 4)

• The Act does not extend to specified external Territories unless the Imported Food Control Act 1992 extends to them. Users in these Territories must verify whether the primary imported food Act applies before assuming the charges regime reaches them.

9. State property protection (s 5) , watch contractual allocations

• Section 5 declares the Act does not impose a tax on State property. Where a regulation attempts to characterise a charge as affecting State property, constitutional limits may apply. Contractual arrangements that allocate charges to State bodies may interact with that constitutional protection.

10. Documentation and proof of compliance for cost‑recovery requirement

• Because the Minister must be satisfied that charges recover no more than the Commonwealth’s likely costs (s 7(2)), parties challenging a regulation may seek evidence about how that satisfaction was formed. The Act does not prescribe record‑keeping or publication of the Minister’s reasons or supporting cost estimates.

Overall, the gotchas arise from the Act’s design choice to set high‑level permissions and constraints but to place most operational choices and enforcement details into regulations and a separate collection Act. The practical effect is that the statutory skeleton alone does not establish obligations on persons; those obligations exist only once regulations and collection provisions are made and in force. Users must therefore verify the current regulatory and collection instruments and the commencement status of these provisions.

Compliance under this Act is primarily about monitoring and responding to the regulations and the separate collection Act that will implement the charging regime. The Act itself establishes the framework and sets certain mandatory prerequisites but does not contain the operational obligations. Steps grounded in the Act text are as follows.

1. Confirm commencement

• Check the commencement status of sections 3-10 because these sections were subject to the staged commencement rule in section 2 as originally enacted. If the sections have not commenced (because the Imported Food Charges (Collection) Act 2015 did not commence), the regulatory powers are not in force. Section 1 and 2 commenced on Royal Assent (as per the original table), but the remainder depended on the Collection Act (s 2). Do not assume the regulatory regime is active without confirming commencement.

2. Locate and read the regulations made under this Act

• The Act delegates the prescription of charges, amounts or methods (s 7(1)), the identification of liable persons (s 8), and the provision of exemptions (s 9) to regulations made by the Governor‑General (s 10). Compliance requires obtaining the current regulations implementing s 6-9 and reading them carefully to determine:
  • what matters are “prescribed” as connected to the administration of the Imported Food Control Act 1992;
  • how charges are quantified (fixed amount or calculation method);
  • which persons or classes are prescribed as liable to pay; and
  • whether any exemptions apply.

3. Consult the Imported Food Charges (Collection) Act 2015

• The Act explicitly directs readers to the Imported Food Charges (Collection) Act 2015 for collection matters (note under s 8). That separate Act will set out payment procedures, collection timelines, recovery processes, potential administrative penalties, interest, objection and review mechanisms, and other operational obligations. Ensure you have the current text of that Act and any regulations made under it.

4. Document and retain evidence relevant to s 7(2)

• Section 7(2) requires the Minister to be satisfied that amounts are designed to recover no more than the Commonwealth’s likely costs. Where a regulated person is affected, consider seeking or recording information that shows the charge calculation and underlying cost estimates. If challenging a regulation, the existence and content of any record of the Minister’s satisfaction may be relevant to judicial review or other legal processes.

5. Review accounting and contractual arrangements

• Because the charges are imposed as taxes (s 6(2)), affected businesses should review accounting treatments and contractual clauses that allocate duties, taxes, or imposts between parties. Although the Act does not itself prescribe accounting rules, the tax characterisation suggests these charges may need to be treated consistently with other tax liabilities in internal accounts and in contractual price adjustments.

6. Identify liable parties and adjust operational processes

• Once the regulations identify liable persons (s 8), those persons should update internal systems to capture chargeable events, calculate or record charges (according to the method in s 7(1) if a method is prescribed), and prepare for payment mechanisms set out in the Collection Act. This may include IT changes to customs declarations, invoicing, supplier and freight agreements, and records keeping.

7. Check for exemptions and apply where eligible

• If regulations include exemptions (s 9), determine whether any of them apply to your operations and compile documentation required to claim an exemption. Exemptions are not automatic in the Act; they are provided only to the extent regulations enact them.

8. Monitor regulatory instruments and policy statements

• Because the Act is largely enabling, its practical operation depends on the text of regulations and any explanatory instruments, guidance notes or administrative materials that accompany them. Keep abreast of official announcements, explanatory memoranda and the Federal Register of Legislation for the instrument texts and any revocations, amendments or disallowances.

9. Obtain specific legal or compliance advice where needed

• The Act embeds constitutional constraints (s 6(4) and s 5) and delegates significant discretion to regulations and ministerial satisfaction. If there is uncertainty about whether a proposed charge is within the constitutional scope, whether a person is properly prescribed as liable, or whether the Minister complied with s 7(2), seek legal advice that can assess the specific instruments and administrative record.

10. Prepare for interaction with imported food administrative requirements

• The charges must be “connected with the administration” of the Imported Food Control Act 1992 (s 6(1)). Ensure that internal compliance with imported food administrative requirements (e.g., declarations, inspections, sampling) is coordinated with any new charge‑related reporting or payment obligations instituted by the regulations and the Collection Act.

In practical terms, compliance under this Act is not a matter of following the Act’s operative sections alone; it requires active engagement with the implementing regulations and the Imported Food Charges (Collection) Act 2015, verification of commencement, and adjustments to financial, contractual and administrative systems in light of who the regulations prescribe as liable and how the charge is calculated and collected.