Originally Posted by
trooper
If you eat it, it is hard to see why you wouldn't call it food...
The forms say "animal" and "vegetable" origin. Do you declare your
rubber condoms when you enter Australia?
Customs can be quite severe here.. and AQIS (the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service) can be extremely "intrusive" in some peoples view... but remember please that this Island continent of ours remains free of many nasty diseases endemic in other parts of the world... rabies and foot & mouth being two fine examples...
And cane toads being an exception. Introduced with government complicity.
Anyway, Alberta is land locked, and is rat free, with no need to inspect airline pax' luggage for rats, or stop motorists at the B.C., Saskatchewan, or NWT territory borders looking for a rodent stowaways. AQIS needs to get over it, and focus on the toads. Maybe they should visit Alberta for lessons in pest control.
Let me know when you catch a disease from my kids' Reese's Pieces. Hey I got an idea, maybe cane toads like deadly Hershey's chocolate.
There is a local television series that has had a run of a few seasons... it is filmed at Sydney airport and shows the sort of things people try to bring (or mail) into the country... Unbelievable!!
I hadn't realized Australian T.V. had gotten that bad. You guys really need to do something fun like playing GTA-San Andreas. Oh yeah, that's right, AQIS protects you from that too.
One quote from the show(that the OP can probably relate to
) .. an incoming passenger with a suitcase chock full of edible items (who naturally had NOT declared any "food" items on her entry form) .. when challenged insisted .. "IS not
food... Is
snack!"
Well I'm sure you feel safer now that Australia's crack customs agents have seized another load of deadly trans fat and substandard chocolate.
I naturally loaded up on Tim Tams the last time I returned from Australia, and U.S. customs didn't arrest me for failing to declare them. How could they not fear deadly Arnott's chocolate and processed wafers?
I also noticed that air side in the SYD international departure terminal, they were selling candy (so I bought my third box of Tim Tams). Apparently Australia is less concerned about the spreading of deadly "food" to other countries.
A distinction which I must say completely escapes me!
You don't see the distinction between processed and cooked goods and raw vegetables, fruits, meat, etc? Are you serious?
Those folks take their jobs seriously.. and as a local I can only applaud that
Yes like most government bureaucrats they take their little jobs seriously.
... and it would take a hard heart not to be charmed by the sight of the AQIS Beagles in their little maroon coats trotting around sniffing away....
A long as they don't "indicate" my bags to their handlers of course!!!
I agree. Having some filthy diseased mutt drool, urinate, and excrete over my stuff irritates me too. At least I'm not allergic to mutts, but too heck with those people who are right?
I have had one or two pretty nasty (hidebound/borderline rude) Customs agents on arrival back home - they are mostly quite pleasant or at least polite... and as that mirrors my experience with the TSA - no notably poor experiences with them either.. I'd have to say, IME, it's all pretty much the same...
There we agree again. The Anglosphere has staffed its border and transportation security departments with equally rude and incompetent people.
Australia's customs people aren't confiscating tic tacs because of safety, it is because they want tourists to buy Australian junk food rather than bring in their own. It's the same reason liquids are banned (the airport stores want a monopoly on liquid beverages), and IDs are checked (the airlines want to prevent pax from transferring tickets). It has nothing to do with security and it is all about protectionism.