Customs Tariff Amendment (Incorporation of Proposal and Other Measures) Bill 2017

Tuesday, 08 August 2017

Mr HAWKE (Mitchell—Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) (18:28): I thank the shadow minister, the member for Blair opposite, for his contribution to the debate. I thank him for his eloquent explanation of mosaic tile classifications. I know that will be the talk of Bunningses around the country in coming weeks and months! I do appreciate his good candour. I do appreciate his commitment to an error-free administration at some point in the future. This tape committing to error-free customs tariff amendments in hundreds of thousands of line items may come back to haunt him one day!

I want to say to the house that the Customs Tariff Amendment (Incorporation of Proposal and Other Measures) Bill 2017 contains a number of amendments to the Customs Tariff Act 1995 that will assist Australian businesses and consumers. The first amendment incorporates the Customs Tariff Proposal (No. 1) 2017 into the act, ensuring that the correct customs duty rate of free is legislated as tariff subheading 6907.30.10, which applies to certain mosaic tiles. The second amendment extends existing concessional arrangements for imports of automotive prototypes and components to include automotive service providers, and the third amendment removes the $12,000 special duty on used and second-hand motor vehicles. The special duties is rarely applied as importers are able to seek exemptions. The final collection of amendments will improve the usability of the act by simplifying the classification of certain machining centres, realigning Australia's classifications of the chemical Paraquat dichloride with international practice, and making some minor formatting corrections. I appreciate the member opposite's commitment to good grammar and the government's commitment also to good grammar. Notwithstanding that we do not have to go into committee over the grammar of the bill, I do commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.