A NEW ERA FOR THE AUSTRALIAN BORDER FORCE : A legacy of service: reflections from bobby to border boss

Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA) and the Australian Peak Shippers Association (APSA) received an invitation to attend the valedictorian address by Australian Border Force (ABF) Commissioner Michael Outram APM, hosted at the National Press Club, Canberra.
 
FTA / APSA took this opportunity to schedule extensive engagement over the last two days with ABF executive; themes of discussion revolved around industry compliance, prohibited imports (including vapes, engineered stone from 1 Jan 2025), difficulties attracting and retaining staff in a highly competitive labor market (an issue for both government and industry), use of emerging technologies (scanning, AI) and the aging and declining numbers of licensed customs brokers.

REPLACING THE INTEGRATED CARGO SYSTEM (ICS)
 
A recurring discussion point was the performance of the Integrated Cargo System (ICS).
 
FTA / APSA stated that from an industry perspective, while not a perfect system, it has been relatively stable in recent years and with the use of sophisticated third-party software interfaces, members generally report a good user experience.

FTA / APSA cautioned that any serious thought of replacing the ICS needs extensive industry engagement with a phased implementation.
 
The scenario sounds like DeJa'Vu.
 
If you cast your minds back a couple of decades, the legacy COMPILE system was reaching its end-of-life with a lack of technical people knowing the code, the Tradegate network contract expiring and hardware no longer to be supported after 3 February 2006. The government of the day had painted itself into a corner and was left with little option but to do a 'big bang' transition from the old to the new on 12 October 2005. As many members will remember all too well, this implementation was a disaster bringing trade to a standstill.   
 
Interestingly, Commissioner Outram's speech yesterday referenced the following:
 
At the time of the Sydney Olympics, our border was highly regarded globally. The Integrated Cargo System or ICS, which handles Australia's import and export transactions, was about to be introduced as a world leading single window system. Since then, trillions of dollars' worth of trade have been transacted through the ICS, and the border has generated hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue through customs duties, GST, and other fees. Today the ICS, a mainframe system based on an 'ancient' code that very few now understand, is still critical for industry and government and handles around 1.2 billion transactions a year.
 
Every comment made by the Commissioner was deliberate and well-considered. This perhaps being a parting message to his successor and all that we need to act now before we are again painted into a corner. The Commissioner's full speech is available HERE
 
STRATEGIC ASSET
 
On Monday 14 October 2024, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the appointment of Gavan Reynolds AO as the next Australian Border Force (ABF) Commissioner – media release available HERE
 
Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA) and the Australian Peak Shippers Association (APSA) look forward to working closely with the incoming Commissioner and his executive team, imparting our corporate knowledge and to offer ongoing close collaboration to ensure our border truly becomes a strategic asset for Australia.

Paul Zalai - Director FTA / Secretariat APSA