Bill
Australian Postal Corporation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024
passed, as at 2024-07-09. Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2024-03-27
- second reading — 2024-03-27
- other — 2024-05-15
- second reading — 2024-05-15
- second reading — 2024-05-15
- other — 2024-05-16
- third reading — 2024-05-16
- introduced — 2024-06-24
- second reading — 2024-06-24
- second reading — 2024-07-04
- second reading — 2024-07-04
- committee — 2024-07-04
- third reading — 2024-07-04
- passed — 2024-07-04
- royal assent — 2024-07-09
Divisions
No divisions recorded. Most questions are decided on the voices; this does not establish that a bill was unopposed.
Plain-language summary
Written by a model from the explanatory memorandum; not the record, as at 2024-03-27.
This bill updates Australia's rules for screening and inspecting international mail at the border.
It gives Australia Post employees more freedom to share mail information with officials and removes certain appointment and categorisation requirements.
The changes start on a date set by Proclamation, or six months after Royal Assent if no date is set.
- Australia Post employees can disclose information or documents to prescribed officials.
- The distinction between 'specially protected' and 'not specially protected' information is removed, giving all mail information equal protection.
- The requirement for employees to be appointed as an 'authorised discloser' to use or disclose information is dropped.
- The Bill clarifies that border agency officers and police may open and examine articles when authorised under the Act and other laws.
- Provisions allowing handling of articles suspected to contain explosives or dangerous goods are incorporated into the Act.
- Terminology for postal offences is updated to match new definitions of when an article is being carried through the mail.
Australia Post employees, customs and biosecurity officers, and officials of Commonwealth, state and territory bodies.
Sources
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