What it does
This Act is the machinery that enables the Commonwealth to collect the levy imposed under the Seafarers Rehabilitation and Compensation Levy Act 1992. It does not itself impose any levy; the liability to pay arises under the companion Levy Act. The Collection Act prescribes who must pay, when, how, and what happens if payment is not made. It requires employers of seafarers on prescribed ships to lodge a return within 14 days after the beginning of each quarter (s 6). The return must state the number of seafarer berths on each prescribed ship in respect of which the employer employed or engaged seafarers on the first day of the quarter. The levy per berth is then payable at the end of the same 14 day period (s 5). If an employer fails to pay, the Commonwealth may recover the levy as a debt (s 8). More distinctively, the Act also authorises an authorised person (appointed by the Chief Executive Officer of Comcare, s 11) to detain the prescribed ship until the unpaid levy is paid (s 9). That gives the Commonwealth a powerful practical remedy: rather than chasing a corporate employer through the courts, it can hold the vessel itself, which directly threatens the employer’s commercial operations. The Act also provides for entry to premises and inspection of documents, with or without a warrant, to verify compliance (ss 12-13). It creates several offences, notably for refusing or failing to give a return and for giving a return that omits required information (s 7). Those offences carry fixed penalties expressed in penalty units, and strict liability applies to certain elements, though a reasonable excuse defence is available. The Act further empowers the Governor-General to make regulations for matters including the manner of payment, record keeping, and information provision, with penalties up to 10 penalty units for regulatory offences (s 16). In summary, the Act is a targeted tax administration statute, designed to secure payment of a specific industry levy by linking the employer’s obligation directly to the physical asset (the ship) through detention powers, as well as through standard debt recovery and criminal sanctions. It interacts with the Seafarers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1992 by using definitions from that Act (employer, seafarer, prescribed ship, seafarer berth) and with the Admiralty Act 1988 by deeming the levy a levy in relation to a ship for in rem proceedings (s 10).