ABSTRACT
Australia’s current arrangements for the enforcement of national legislation and the protection of national interests at sea are far from integrated. They owe much to their historical antecedents and the recommendations of successive reviews of the maritime surveillance and enforcement function.1
Changes made to arrangements over the years have generally been ad hoc and in response to a specific crisis. Divisions of responsibility are spread widely between agencies of both the Commonwealth and the states. To the extent that maritime enforcement and compliance is a system, it is one of “distributed responsibility,” often characterized by less than optimum coordination and cooperation between the agencies involved. The implementation of Australia’s Oceans Policy through the process of regional marine planning (RMP) will add, however, new dimensions to maritime enforcement and compliance in Australia.
