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The COA
was formed in Sydney Australia to represent Customs Officers engaged in
law enforcement duties and Australia's lighthouse keepers. In the
days of its formation and early history, the Australian Customs Service
was effectively divided into two working divisions. They aligned
with the Commonwealth Public Service Third Division (clerical grades) and
the Fourth Division (clerical assistant grades). As a result of the
Commonwealth's emphasis upon the collection of revenue (an administrative
function) over the protection of the community (regarded as a secondary
function), those Customs Officers engaged on community protection (law
enforcement) duties were predominantly relegated in the Fourth Division.
The COA was originally formed to represent the
interests of the law enforcement officers within Customs. These officers
were known Preventive Officers ("PO's") and for many years were
separated from their Third Division colleague by subtle differences in
their uniforms - the Third division officers wore gold buttons on their
tunics, while Preventive Officers wore black buttons. Even after
the abolition of these differences, antipathy existed between the grades,
as POs often felt they were being treated as second-class Customs Officers,
even though many believed that their work was actually more important to
the Australian community than the revenue collection and faciliation performed
by their Third Division colleagues.
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