Mr Carmody should also look at some Customs non-core hang-ons from days gone by. For example, the anti-dumping section surely belongs somewhere else - perhaps with the ACCC.
It may also be time for Customs to bow out of its role as a tax gatherer. Collecting revenue is not about protecting the border or facilitating trade and besides the ATO does it better.
If he’s after some bedtime reading on the topic of restructure, Mr Carmody could do no better than to dig up the Sturgess Report of 1998: it is said to recommend the creation of a single border agency. That is a valuable idea and on such a matter of public importance it would be useful to have the key document available for public debate. Unfortunately, this report too is a national secret.
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The excessive secrecy has not stopped Labor from leading the way on policy. Labor has already endorsed a single Department of Homeland Security for protection of the border, and did so some years ago.
A single border management agency, including an Australian Coastguard is not a pipe dream. It’s a must. Yet the Justice Minister Chris Ellison has not lifted a finger to bring it about.
Where the minister has failed, Mr Carmody must pick up the mantle of reform. Let’s see what choice Mr Carmody makes in 2006.
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