The Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Chris Ellison has welcomed the release of a request for tender to provide a new, rapid response Customs helicopter to help deal with illegal foreign fishing incursions into our northern waters.

"The Government is moving quickly to implement the full raft of new measures announced in the 2006-07 Budget to tackle illegal fishing head-on," Senator Ellison said.

The Customs helicopter will be based in Gove and be able to respond quickly to landings by foreign fishing vessels on the Arnhem coast and around the Gulf of Carpentaria.

After a comprehensive review of illegal landings, Gove was selected due to its central location, available infrastructure and availability of Customs response teams. The last budget allocated $24.9m over four years to Customs to procure, manage, staff and operate the service.

It will carry up to six Customs officers or officials from other departments to respond to landings by illegal foreign fishers.

While Gove will be the initial centre of operations, the contract will allow for deployment of the helicopter out of this area of operations to respond to other activities as required.

"This response activity will be the helicopter's primary function, but when not required for response services, it will also be used for surveillance," Senator Ellison said.

He said the helicopter tender, which closes on 10 October, was the third request for tender to be released by Customs as part of a $389 million Federal Government package to boost Australia's capacity to deal with this problem.

It follows the release of tenders to establish an accredited list of providers for towing and transporting vessels and for a dedicated northern patrol vessel.

The towing and transporting vessels will be used to tow apprehended boats and transport illegal foreign fishers to an Australian port for further investigation, enabling Customs and Navy patrol boats to speedily return to duty. The last budget allocated $14m over four years to this task.

The dedicated northern patrol vessel will be a significant boost to the Customs fleet patrolling our northern Australian fishing zone.

In addition, the Joint Offshore Protection Command's responsibilities have been expanded to include operational coordination of maritime response in general, and to illegal foreign fishing in particular.

"With the helicopter tender now in the marketplace, we are a step nearer to acquiring another major asset in the fight against illegal fishing," Senator Ellison said.

"These combined measures demonstrate that the Government takes our border protection - threats to Australia's environment, quarantine, health and security - extremely seriously," the Minister said.

Media inquiries:
Michael Barrett (02) 6277 7260 0419 424 359.
Broadcast quality file vision of Customs Coastwatch helicopters can be downloaded from customs.ondeadline.com.au