Infringement Notices
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Why infringement notices are issued
Under Australian law, international carriers entering Australia from overseas must comply with certain obligations in relation to their vessels and persons on board their vessels. It is the responsibility of the carrier to ensure that all passengers and crew are reported and authorised to travel to Australia.
There are two main requirements for carriers to meet:
- providing advance passenger information about all passengers and crew, using the Advance Passenger Processing (APP) system, and
- ensuring that all passengers have authority to travel to Australia.
Carriers may elect to pay a fine instead of prosecution for failing to meet these requirements.
Failure to report using APP system
Where a carrier fails to report passengers and crew using the approved APP system, they may be liable, upon conviction for an offence, to a fine of $6,600. As an alternative to prosecution, carriers may elect to pay a prescribed penalty totalling $1,100 for each breach of the reporting requirements, as specified in an APP infringement notice.
APP infringement notices may be issued for breaches occurring on or after Wednesday, 1 July 2009.
The following links provide details of the operation of this regime.
See:
Introduction of Infringement Notices (71KB PDF file)
Fact Sheet (90KB PDF file)
Questions and Answers (87KB PDF file)
Carriage of inadequately documented passengers
Where a carrier brings an inadequately documented passenger or an undocumented passenger to Australia, they may be liable, upon conviction, to a fine of $10,000. As an alternative to prosecution, carriers may elect to pay a prescribed penalty of $5,000 for an offence (an infringement notice).
The department maintains this policy to deter carriers from failing to confirm passengers' immigration status before they board a plane to come to Australia. Any such oversight on the part of a carrier has scope to seriously compromise Australia’s border security.
The infringement regime is a key component of a range of initiatives undertaken by the department to promote Australia’s border integrity.
Assisting airlines to avoid infringement notices for carriage of inadequately documented passengers
Airlines are provided with access to systems such as the APP system to assist airlines in checking that all passengers hold the appropriate authority to travel to Australia. The introduction of APP has seen a significant reduction in the number of infringement notices issued to airlines for the carriage of inadequately documented passengers on an annual basis.
The Entry Operations Centre provides a 24 hour, 7 days a week help desk facility and is able to provide airline staff with information about the immigration status of individuals intending to travel to Australia. The Entry Operations Centre is also able to assist airlines with APP.
Australian Airline Liaison Officers (ALOs) are strategically located at key hub international airports with direct flights to Australia and/or last ports of embarkation to assist airlines in resolving issues with inadequately documented passengers intending to travel to Australia.
These initiatives have contributed to a significant reduction in infringement notices issued over recent years, from around 4500 notices issued in 2000-01 to around 660 notices issued in 2007-08.
When a notice is issued for the carriage of an inadequately documented passenger
Departmental officers apply the infringement rule strictly in relation to airlines who fail to ensure that a passenger is properly documented.
In determining whether an infringement notice should be served, departmental airport staff require evidence that the airline has acted with due care and in good faith when allowing the passenger to board. This includes examining departmental systems to determine what has occurred at check-in in regards to checks conducted by the airline, for example APP checks.
Infringement notices served on airlines may be withdrawn by a delegated officer if it is established that the carrier, acting with due care and in good faith, had reason to believe that the passenger was adequately documented.