The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service is the Australian Federal Government agency responsible for managing the security and integrity of the Australian border, facilitating the movement of legitimate international travellers and goods, and collecting border-related duties and taxes.^[1]

The minister responsible for the agency is the Minister for Home Affairs (Brendan O'Connor). The Home Affairs portfolio is part of the Attorney-General's Department, overseen by Attorney-General Nicola Roxon. The current Chief Executive Officer of the agency is Michael Carmody.

The Service employs over 5,800 people around Australia and overseas and is headquartered in Canberra.^[1]

Agency role[link]

Import and export control[link]

Customs controls the import and export of goods to and from Australia, in particular the control of prohibited or restricted items, and the interception of illegal and potentially harmful goods such as drugs, weapons and computer games. Techniques used to target high-risk aircraft, vessels, cargo, postal items and travellers include using intelligence, computer-based profiling and analysis, detector dogs, Smartgate, container X-Ray facilities, Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) monitoring and other means.

Customs officers at air and sea ports, in addition to performing basic immigration control (see below), assess passengers arrival and departure cards, and have the authority to scan and search passenger baggage. Quarantine risk material may be referred to Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service officers.

Goods arriving from overseas by post are cleared by Customs and AQIS officers before being released to Australia Post for delivery.

Customs collects Goods and Services Tax (GST) on taxable goods imported into Australia. Items not subject to GST within Australia, such as basic foodstuffs, are exempt from import GST collection, as are goods that qualify for customs duty concessions.^[2]

Customs administers the Tourist Refund Scheme (TRS) for tourists visiting Australia temporarily or Australian residents leaving the country, allowing them, under certain conditions, to claim a refund of the GST or Wine Equalisation Tax on items purchased in Australia.^[3]

Immigration control[link]

Australian Customs and Border Protection Service officers perform routine immigration control at Australian airports on behalf of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC). Issues arising regarding travel documents or authority to enter Australia are referred to immigration staff at the airport.^[4]

Maritime border patrol[link]

Australian Customs ship docked in Darwin, Northern Territory

Australia's borders extend into the 200-nautical-mile (370 km) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) where Customs and Border Protection also has a key role in addressing maritime threats through the Border Protection Command (BPC), a Customs and Department of Defence partnership. The Customs Marine Unit maintains a fleet of ocean-going patrol boats known as Australian Customs Vessels (ACVs) and contracts a fleet of long-range aircraft, known as Coastwatch, as the basis for a civil maritime surveillance and response program managed by the BPC.

See also[link]

• Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service

References[link]

External links[link]

• Australian Customs and Border Protection Service website
• Border Protection Command

Lebanese Australians

Notable Lebanese Australians: Steve Bracks, David Malouf, Bachar Houli
Total population
Lebanese 181,751 (by ancestry, 2006) [1] 86,599 (by birth, 2006).[2][3]
Regions with significant populations
Sydney (72.8% of Lebanese-born Australian residents), Melbourne, Brisbane
Languages
Australian English, Lebanese Arabic, Standard Arabic, French
Religion
Christian (53%), Muslim (40%)[4]
Related ethnic groups
Arab diaspora, Sierra Leonean-Lebanese, Lebanese Americans, Lebanese Canadians, Ecuadorian of Lebanese origin, Lebanese Brazilians, Arab Argentines, Lebanese British, Arab Mexicans

A Lebanese Australian is an Australian citizen or permanent resident of Lebanese descent. The community is multi-religious, and includes a Christian, mostly Maronite Catholic, majority, as well as a large Muslim minority of both the Shia and Sunni branches of Islam, and various other Christian and Muslim denominations, as well as other religions.

Lebanon, in both its modern-day form as the Lebanese state (declared in 1920, granted independence in 1943) and its historical form as the region of the Lebanon, has been a source of migrants to Australia for over two centuries. Some 181,751 Australians claim Lebanese ancestry, either alone or in combination with another ancestry.^[1] The 2006 census recorded 86,599 Lebanese-born people in Australia,^[2] with 72.8% of all people with Lebanese ancestry living in Sydney, where they make up 2.3% of Sydney's population.^[5]

In New South Wales, the Western Sydney suburbs of Bankstown, Lakemba, Auburn, Granville and Punchbowl are largely associated with the Lebanese population, as in Victoria are the Northern Melbourne suburbs of Broadmeadows and Coburg, Brunswick, Fawkner and Altona.

Community history[link]

As part of a large scale emigration in the 1870s, numerous Lebanese (mostly Christians) migrated in great numbers out of Lebanon to various destinations. Most emigrated to Brazil and other Latin American nations, particularly Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. Many also went to the United States, and others to Australia, primarily to the eastern states, and most to New South Wales in particular.^[6][7]

Thus, Australia's Lebanese population is one of the older established non-English speaking minorities in the country (though many Lebanese people now speak English, to a greater or lesser extent). Although it is considerably smaller in numbers to Greek Australians, Italian Australians, or German Australians, they are nonetheless of a similar vintage.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1890s, there were increasing numbers of Lebanese immigrants to Australia, part of the mass emigration from the area of the Lebanon that would become the modern Lebanese state, and also from the Anti-Lebanon region of what would become Syria.^[8]

Under the White Australia policy of the nineteenth century (and with Lebanon being located in the Middle East, geographically known as South West Asia) Lebanese migrants were classified as Asians and came within the scope of the White Australia policy which intentionally restricted non-white immigration to Australia. Lebanese migrants, like others deemed non-white by Australian law, were excluded from citizenship, the right to vote and employment, and were treated as enemy aliens during World War I and World War II.^[6] In 1897 Lebanese store keepers and businesses were accused of fraud by state border Customs officers during Queensland customs prosecution cases.^[8]

Prior to 1918, Lebanese migrants to Australia were not habitually distinguished from Turks because the area of modern Lebanon was a province of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Administration then passed to the French Mandate for several decades, which ruled it together with what would become Syria, its neighbour. Hence, for that period, the Lebanese were not distinguished from Syrians.^[9]

One dot denotes 100 Lebanese-born Sydney residents

One dot denotes 100 Lebanese-born Melbourne residents

From 1920, people from Lebanon (and Syria) were granted access to Australian citizenship as the Nationality Act 1920 removed the racial disqualification from the naturalisation laws.^[8]

By 1947, there were 1,886 Lebanese-born in Australia,^[10] almost all Christian. The Lebanese born population numbered 24,218 in 1971 and had doubled to 49,617 in 1981.^[10] Following the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, more than 20,000 civil war refugees arrived in Australia.^[10] This wave of migrants were often poor and for the first time, over half of them were Muslim.^[10] This influx of new migrants changed the character of the established Lebanese community in Australia significantly, especially in Sydney where 75% of the Lebanese-born population were concentrated.^[10]

For the remainder of the 1970s and 1980s, unrest in Lebanon caused a large increase in the number of Lebanese migrating to Australia, continuing with a significant proportion being comprised by Muslims.

In 1991, there were 68,787 people who were first generation immigrants born in Lebanon and 67,453 second generation people associated with Lebanon as a birthplace.^[11]

The Lebanese in Melbourne have opened restaurants and groceries and Middle Eastern shops and Lebanese bars on Sydney Road which is sometimes called "Little Lebanon".^[12]

Following the trials for a series of gang rape attacks in Sydney in 2000 by a group of Lebanese, the Lebanese Muslim Australian community came under significant scrutiny by the media in addition to a more general anti-Muslim backlash after the 11 September 2001 attacks.^[13] Community concern and divisiveness continued in the wake of the 2005 Cronulla riots in Sydney.^[14]

Key events and organisations

There are now many Lebanese-Australian business groups, businesses and events aimed primarily at engaging the large Lebanese community in Australia and strengthening ties between Australia and Lebanon.

The peak business body is the Australian Lebanese Chamber of Commerce, with associations in both Sydney and Melbourne.

A Lebanese Film Festival has been launched in Sydney for 2012. This will showcase Lebanese arts and culture through film and becomes the premier showcase of Lebanese cinema outside of Lebanon^[15].

Religious diversity[link]

Most Lebanese people today live outside of Lebanon. Because of the prolonged emigration of Lebanese Christians for the last two centuries (leading to their depletion in Lebanon itself), today, an estimated 55% of Lebanese in Lebanon are Muslim (having become the majority in the last two to three decades). Of the Lebanese outside of Lebanon, known also as the Lebanese diaspora, the majority is Christian.

In Australia, 53% of Lebanese are Christian, while a large minority (40%) are Muslim, of those born in Lebanon.^[4]

All main Lebanese religious groups — Christians, including Maronites, Melkites, Greek Orthodox, Orthodox and Catholic Lebanese Armenians, Muslims, including Shi'a and Sunnis denominations; Druze, amongst others — are now represented.^[16]

Return migration[link]

Lebanese Australians have a moderate rate of return migration to Lebanon. In December 2001, the Department of Foreign Affairs estimated that there were 25,000 Australian citizens resident in Lebanon.^[17]

During the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, the Australian Government organised mass evacuations of Australians resident in Lebanon.^[18]

Notable Lebanese Australians[link]

See also[link]

• Christianity in Australia
• Islam in Australia
• Religion in Australia
• 2005 Cronulla riots
• Sydney gang rapes

References[link]

External links[link]

• Australian Lebanese Historical Society
• Lebanese-Australian Embassy
• United Australian Lebanese movement
• World Lebanese Cultural Union (WLCU) Geographic-Regional Council (GRC) for Australia and New Zealand

v t e Lebanese people and diaspora Countries Americas Argentina Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Ecuador Jamaica Mexico Paraguay United States Uruguay Venezuela Europe Bulgaria France Italy Sweden United Kingdom Greece Africa Côte d'Ivoire Senegal Sierra Leone Asia Israel Turkey Oceania Australia Personalities Americas Argentina Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Cuba Curaçao Dominican Republic Ecuador Guatemala Haiti Jamaica Mexico Puerto Rico United States Uruguay Venezuela Europe Bulgaria Cyprus Denmark France Germany Italy Monaco Netherlands Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom Africa Egypt Ghana Sierra Leone South Africa Oceania Australia

v t e Arab diaspora Africa Côte d'Ivoire Americas Argentina Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Haiti Mexico Peru United States Venezuela Asia Afghanistan Indonesia Iran Pakistan Philippines Singapore Sri Lanka Turkey Europe Bulgaria France Germany (Berlin) Greece Netherlands United Kingdom Oceania Australia

v t e Arab Australians North African Egyptian Sudanese West Asian Armenian Iraqi Jordanian Lebanese Palestinian Saudi

v t e Ethnic groups in Australia Australia Australian · Anglo-Celtic · Australian Aboriginal · Torres Strait Islander · White Europe Northern Danish · Norwegian · Swedish Western English · Anglo-Celtic (Cornish · Scottish · Welsh) · Belgian · Dutch · French · Irish · Manx Central Austrian · Czech · German · Hungarian · Polish · Swiss Southern Gibraltarian · Greek · Italian · Maltese · Portuguese · Spanish Balkan Albanian · Bosnian · Bulgarian · Croatian · Kosovan · Macedonian · Montenegrin · Romanian · Serbian · Slovene Eastern Russian · Ukrainian Asia East Chinese (Hong Kong) · Japanese · Korean · Taiwanese South Afghan (Pashtun) · Bangladeshi · Indian (Malayali · Tamil) · Nepali · Pakistani (Pashtun) · Sri Lankan (Sinhalese · Tamil) Southeast Cambodian · Filipino · Indonesian · Laotian · Malaysian · Singaporean · Thai · Vietnamese West Arab · Armenian · Assyrian · Iranian · Iraqi · Israeli · Jewish · Jordanian · Lebanese · Palestinian · Saudi · Turkish Americas North American · Canadian Caribbean Jamaican · Trinidadian and Tobagonian Latin Argentine · Brazilian · Chilean · Colombian · Ecuadorian · Peruvian · Salvadoran · Uruguayan Africa Egyptian · Ethiopian · Somali · South African · Sudanese · Ugandan · Zimbabwean Oceania Fijian · Maori · New Zealander · Samoan (according to 2006 Australian census data: 20680 - Ancestry by Country of Birth of Parents)