Part One
SU’A WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere) : Labour supports the Border (Customs, Excise, and Tariff) Processing Bill for many reasons. One of the key reasons, of course, is that our people Rick Barker and the Hon Nanaia Mahuta have worked on this issue for some years. This bill clarifies and enhances the Customs and Excise Act in terms of law enforcement capability. Its provisions include enabling customs officers to stop and search a vehicle, to use reasonable force to gain entry, and to search a vehicle that is unattended or abandoned. The use of reasonable force is needed in order to open a vehicle if it is locked or unattended. Otherwise, customs officers cannot search the vehicle without a court order, and in the time it takes to obtain a court order the prohibited goods could have been disposed of and the people responsible for the vehicle could be gone.
This bill is important particularly for communities that have a serious concern about illegal drugs and P coming through our borders. The bill also allows customs officers to arrest any person committing an offence under the Customs and Excise Act, whether or not that person is on a craft. These provisions simply streamline enforcement processes by the Customs Service and aid efficient law-enforcement procedures.
The bill also creates a new offence of making a false allegation or a false report to the Customs Service. If anyone does so, he or she commits an offence and can be prosecuted. The bill allows customs officers to use future technologies to detect tampering with containers or interference with goods and packages. Using future technologies is seen as being more effective than the currently utilised customs seal. That is especially pertinent now, as I have been made aware that the United States is making rapid advances in the use of technology for its trade security.
There are, however, a couple of things that I seek clarity on from the Minister of Customs. The first is that the bill gives customs officers the power to arrest not only when reasonable cause to suspect has arisen but for a period of 7 days after the offence. That raises the question of why the period is limited to 7 days. What happens if the offender immediately goes to ground and is not located for another 3 months? Do police and customs officers stop searching for the offender after the 1-week period has expired? We want some clarity on that.
The other point I want to make concerns new section 274A, inserted by clause 22. It allows the chief executive to arrange for the use of automated electronic systems for any purposes that he or she sees fit in exercising a power. Labour asks where the checks and balances in this process are. Although Labour members have the deepest respect for our customs and border control officials, we do not believe that it is a good thing to have a chief executive with unfettered power. We would expect checks and balances in that regard.
As I said before, Labour members support the bill. We will be supporting the amendments. In the third reading debate we will emphasise our concerns about the issues around P and other drugs. My colleague the Hon Chris Carter has also highlighted our concerns about ensuring that our borders are well-resourced. Despite having SmartGate—a tool that customs officials need—the job of the Customs Service is still labour-intensive. That is what I understand from what I have learnt about the service at the border.
Cutting the budget of the Customs Service may send to criminals some signals that we do not want to be sending. The signals could say to them that we are putting our customs officials and border agencies under strain. It could mean that we are sending them the signal that they can compromise our borders. That is not what we want. I will leave it at that, and give my colleagues the opportunity to speak.
Part Two – In Committee
SU’A WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere) : I am happy to rise to declare that Labour supports the Border (Customs, Excise, and Tariff) Processing Bill, as outlined by the Minister of Customs, the Hon Maurice Williamson. I take this opportunity to reflect back to the Government some areas that need to be illuminated. I also signal that we have a couple of questions we would like to ask the Government during the Committee stage for clarity. I also take this opportunity to recognise my colleagues the Hon Rick Barker and the Hon Nanaia Mahuta, who, as former customs Ministers when Labour was in Government, had a hand in the genesis of the development of the SmartGate system with our neighbours across the ditch, the Australian Government. I acknowledge them because through their initial efforts we are able to join today with the Government in introducing SmartGate. Labour supports SmartGate as an automated passenger processing system that can be used for faster and easier passenger processing, and that will facilitate trans-Tasman travel for people deemed to be low-risk.
Although I was not a member of the Government Administration Committee, it was a concern to me that there were only two submitters. Because the airport is in Māngere, I had the opportunity to ask the people there whether they had any concerns about SmartGate. Although the people of Māngere—which is the gateway to the nation—support SmartGate, they did express some concerns. One concern was this: because we now have a National Government, SmartGate may be used only for the elite of society, big business, or those who travel in first or business class. There was a concern that SmartGate may not include ordinary citizens and ordinary Kiwis. What the Government does is what the Government will do. But in so far as Labour is concerned, SmartGate is an option for low-risk passengers. It should not be solely for business passengers, and it should include tourists and the ordinary Kiwi traveller.
A further concern raised was that SmartGate is only a machine and it may make a mistake. If we can imagine a machine using SmartGate, a confrontation could occur where the machine is capable only of making a yes or no decision, and a person arriving has a valid explanation that could work in his or her favour but is unable to provide that to a real person. This concern was reinforced by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, which, in its submission to the select committee, gave evidence that there should be a requirement that manual alternatives would always be available or that the chief executive will consult the Privacy Commissioner on any privacy implications before eliminating or reducing manual alternatives. Labour supports the Privacy Commissioner’s recommendation that manual alternatives, or real people, always be available. I am pleased that the committee recommends an amendment to clause 22 of the bill that proposes at least one alternative method of processing involving a person being available alongside automated border processing.
Labour agrees with the need to stay up to date with the latest technology to keep our borders safe. We need to protect our borders against the growing P menace, and I will have a little bit more to say about that later. Labour believes that the New Zealand Customs Service must have the tools to stay on top of this threat, and the Government must give its full support to our border control agencies. We will also be looking to support the Government’s amendments that will be introduced later on.
Part Three – Third Reading
SU’A WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere) : As I did not spend very much time in my second reading speech on the Border (Customs, Excise, and Tariff) Processing Bill, I will spend a bit of time highlighting the importance of our border. I will illuminate the community concerns around drugs that have gone through our borders, share some concerns with the Minister of Customs, and issue some challenges to him.
It is no secret that over the past several decades our borders have changed significantly, with increasing demands on border control agencies due to a number of factors. Travel passenger numbers have increased significantly. In 1993-94 there were, I think, 2 million passengers, and now we are looking at 9 million people coming in and out during the past year. Our trade volumes all continue to rise as, with each free-trade agreement New Zealand signs up to, there are increases in the volume of imports and exports and increases in the number of transactions required to meet our international obligations.
Another factor that threatens our borders arose from the disaster of 9/11 in New York. This and the subsequent Bush war on the Arabian region has meant that every country has been forced to stand in a heightened sense of alertness as the world comes to grips with the recognition that our borders are vulnerable to the rising tide of international terrorism, which has become both frequent and more intense. Then in May of this year every New Zealander was shocked to hear that one of our own senior police constables had been shot dead in Napier, and several other police officers and members of the public had been fired upon. I think that tragedy highlighted that illegal firearms are crossing our borders and are sold and exchanged here in Aotearoa. Most of us thought that that kind of stuff belongs in the movies, out there in the USA or in Africa. Sadly, that experience and other similar tragedies involving firearms show that our borders are not immune to illegal weapons passing through undetected. Our borders are also not immune to the ongoing criminal activities of counterfeit goods and products being smuggled through. We are also vulnerable to breaches in our biosecurity and to human trafficking.
Perhaps the most significant factor for me is the very real threat that organised crime groups pose to our families and our communities from the illegal drug trade involving P or its precursor. These crime syndicates are becoming increasingly diverse and sophisticated in their methods of smuggling. In recent months the Customs Service, working with the other border agency, succeeded at intercepting significant drug hauls at our border. Earlier this month the Customs Service intercepted a drug haul with an estimated street value of up to $6 million, and six people were arrested. In September the Customs Service seized 80 kilos of a precursor that would produce 24 kilos of P with a street value of around $20 million. I understand that this was the third-largest haul of its kind seen in New Zealand. An Auckland man was charged with this offence. In March a drug haul of about $4.8 million was intercepted and three people were arrested.
I use these examples to illuminate the reality of the drug problem that is moving through our borders. It involves millions of dollars, and people will kill to protect their money. For whatever reasons, people in our community buy the drug. It is being sold all over New Zealand. It is a huge challenge to our law enforcement agencies and they face real dangers when dealing with this illegal trade. However, it may be more alarming to many New Zealanders that, despite the best efforts of the Customs Service and our border control agencies, we are able to intercept only some illegal drugs crossing our borders. There is a strong indication that a significant volume passes through our borders undetected. The MP for Hunua raised the point in the post-Budget select committee meeting that he had a seen report that stated that only 20 percent of illegal drugs coming over our borders are intercepted. At that same meeting the Minister of Customs himself said he did not know how many drugs go through our borders unnoticed. He said further that he was resigned to the Customs Service not being able to inspect every package, container, boat, or person that enters New Zealand’s borders.
Communities throughout New Zealand that are aware of the misery that P and other related drugs cause on our streets and in our homes want to know that this Government will do all it can to make sure our borders are safe and secure from illegal drug-trafficking. We want to know that organised crime syndicates will be caught, and that those responsible for this scourge on our society will be prosecuted. The public wants to know that the Minister of Customs is on the job doing something about protecting our borders. We want to know that the Minister is supporting our border control officials and that he himself has committed to stopping drug trafficking across our borders, because when the drugs cross our borders, they reach our communities.
Labour is concerned that $2 million was cut from the Customs Service in a line-by-line review. We were concerned also when it was highlighted by Paul Holmes in his Q+A interview of the Prime Minister on 11 October that the Government cut some $3.57 million from the border control budget. The New Zealand public wants to be assured that our borders are not under strain from lack of resourcing from this Government. That is the challenge that we are issuing to the Minister of Customs.
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