No concessions from Australian Customs
31 July 1998Australia's strict quarantine, immigration and customs restrictions will not be compromised in the lead-up to the Olympics, border control authorities have guaranteed.
No concessions will be made for goods currently banned from entry into Australia and protection of our agriculture remains the priority.
Australia's geographic isolation, long considered a burden in attracting the Games, has remained one of the country's great agricultural strengths.
Combined with tough import restrictions, Australia has remained free from stock diseases, including foot and mouth disease and many avian diseases.
But in what remains a talking point among sports trivia buffs, Australia's strict quarantine restrictions were not compromised for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and equestrian events were instead held in Stockholm.
An infectious horse disease, piroplasmosis, contributed to the Games organisers' decision to rule out equestrian events being held in Melbourne.
But a better understanding and control of diseases meant it was now possible to host the events with minimal risk, said Mr Denis Paterson, national head of the animal and plant program branch of the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS).
"What has fundamentally changed is disease testing and knowledge and our ability to assess the risk - that is all that has changed. Because of that we are now able to put into place a new set of arrangements," Mr Paterson said.
"It's no different to now knowing that seat belts in cars help prevent people from dying in crashes and so we put seat belts in."
Allowing international horses to compete at equestrian events at the Sydney Games will not endanger the country's agricultural industries, he said.
"We see this as a major challenge but we don't see it as an insurmountable one at all."
Mr Paterson said strict controls meant rabies, foot and mouth disease and avian diseases which would affect the native bird population had been kept out of Australia. That was reason enough to maintain national standards, he said.
"Australia simply has more to protect than the majority of the rest of the world. We don't have many of the world's worst pests and diseases."
That does not mean there are not huge logistical obstacles to overcome for the Games, particularly with livestock, he said.
Horses will be quarantined at European and North American sites nominated by the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG). They will then travel by controlled air charter before again being placed in quarantine in Sydney for 14 days.
"Horses have a passport these days and they travel the world subject to vet tests all the way," Mr Paterson said. "There's so much more we can now do so we're not expecting that will cause a problem."
Australia's largest quarantine station is next door to the competition venue at Horsley Park where the horses will be stabled. The station will be used to isolate any sick horses.
Restricted access is already allowed for visiting horses to compete in the Melbourne Cup.
"We quarantine them at Sandown [in Melbourne] for three weeks, they race and then off they go."
SOCOG has distributed information packages on Australia's quarantine restrictions to Olympic nations.
But tough measures, including fumigating horse feed overseas and strict movement restrictions while in Australia, will be implemented.
"We're only replicating conditions which apply in the 1990s here in Australia," Mr Paterson said.
AQIS and other border control authorities, including the Australian Customs Service and the Department of Immigration, have identified other areas expected to come under pressure in the months leading up to the Games.
They include passenger processing, cargo processing, large vessels acting as major floating hotels, luxury yachts, cultural food fairs hosted by visiting countries and the Paralympics.
One of the key concerns to quarantine officials is an international food fair, planned to coincide with the Games. The officials are keen to encourage visitors to buy produce locally and an education campaign will urge that food to be cooked or treated before being allowed into Australia.
Electronic passenger processing will be stepped up to cope with up to 300,000 visitors expected for the Olympics alone and annual passenger traffic expected to increase from 14 million this year to 18 million by 2000.
A spokesman for the Australian Customs Service said limited special concessions would be made for the Olympic period.
Amendments to legislation would allow large outside broadcast television equipment into the country as temporary imports and would be free of duty and sales tax, he said.
With up to 80 large luxury vessels acting as hotels to berth in Sydney Harbour, attention is required for passenger processing and quarantine including securing on board all food brought into the country.
But more than 500 smaller boats are also expected in the harbour. Coastguard services and volunteer staff will be trained to perform searches and secure any food and animals on these craft.
Special provisions will be in place for Paralympic athletes bringing in guide dogs.
More than 200 guide dogs are expected to come to Sydney for the Paralympics and special quarantine entry allowances will be made because of strict regular veterinary checks the dogs already undergo.
The Immigration Department believes its major challenge is to ensure that Olympic and Paralympic travellers, from more than 200 countries, know about Australian visa and entry requirements.
In conjunction with the Customs Service, passenger declarations have already been simplified with one Incoming Passenger Card replacing separate declaration forms.
Other simplified procedures include visa-issuing arrangements with travel agencies overseas and Advanced Passenger Clearance, which enables rapid processing of airport arrivals.
