Maritime Powers Extension Bill

E Te Māngai o Te Whare, tēnā koe, otirā, e ngā mema katoa, tēnā tātou katoa. I move, That the Maritime Powers Extension Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee to consider this bill.

Today, high schools all up this country descend on Palmerston North to compete for the grand national title of secondary kapa haka. So, on behalf of this side, the Government, we extend our warm wishes to every single kapa, their tutors, their whānau, and their supporters over these next few days in the very good electorate of Te Tai Hauāuru and the general electorate of Palmerston North.

Back to the bill, the Maritime Powers Extension Bill seeks to provide a domestic legislative framework for responding to drug-smuggling activity in international waters, beyond New Zealand’s territorial seas. New Zealand may be a small country in terms of its land mass, but it is responsible for the security of a vast area of surrounding ocean. We have the world’s fourth-largest exclusive economic zone, just to give an idea of the scale. Historically, this vast area of sea has acted as a barrier and protection from many of the ills and threats that affect other parts of the world. New Zealand has simply been too far away. In this regard, the tyranny of distance has served us well, but distance is no longer our friend when it comes to drug-smuggling.

In our long and often isolated coastline is our vulnerability. We can no longer rely on our geographical isolation as a deterrent. We have seen a marked increase in the number of smuggling operations taking place across the South Pacific over the past two years, including those targeting or implicating New Zealand. It is critical that our agencies have the tools to respond effectively to organised crime groups using ships on the high seas to bring drugs in large quantities to our part of the world, without impeding the legitimate movement of people, goods, and services.

Australia now has the legislative ability to intercept these shipments in international waters. New Zealand is increasingly likely to be seen as a softer target. The fact that illicit drugs tend to attract a high price in New Zealand also makes this country an attractive market. Currently, we have no law that explicitly makes smuggling drugs via international waters an offence in New Zealand. We have no legal framework that allows our Customs Service—or any other agency, for that matter—to take enforcement action against those who are involved in drug-smuggling on the high seas, 24 nautical miles out from our coastline, beyond our territorial waters and contiguous zone.

New Zealand is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. These conventions provide New Zealand with rights and obligations to supress the smuggling of illicit drugs in international waters. This bill would both address the gap in our legislative powers to deal with seaborne drug-smuggling and help us meet our international obligations under those United Nations agreements.

Specifically, this bill will give customs the statutory power to board, search, and, if evidence of offending is found, take necessary enforcement actions in respect of vessels in international waters beyond the contiguous zone in line with the powers that apply within New Zealand’s contiguous zone. That will include, in certain circumstances, the power to seize the vessel itself. It will also make it an offence, under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, to knowingly be involved in an effort to smuggle drugs to or from New Zealand. It will also ensure that these powers can only be exercised where customs have reasonable cause to suspect that a ship is involved in drug-smuggling. Customs will work with other agencies, such as the New Zealand Defence Force, to exercise these powers far offshore from Aotearoa New Zealand. However, customs’ new vessel, the Hawk V—the launch of which I was fortunate enough to attend as one of my early official duties as customs Minister—also bolsters customs’ capability to enforce our powers at sea.

I want to acknowledge the support of New Zealand First and the Green Party of Aotearoa / New Zealand for this bill. Collectively, we are committed to stopping the flow of illicit drugs that are causing lasting harm to New Zealand whānau and communities. This bill provides an additional option for customs to disrupt and dismantle the networks that are responsible for these harms. I also would like to acknowledge the Hon Nicky Wagner and the Hon Tim Macindoe, who as previous Ministers of Customs provided their support during the early development of this bill. Thank you also to the Government departments and agencies who have assisted with the preparation of this bill.

It is vital that our law enforcement agencies have all the tools available to combat drug-smuggling activities. As the risk of maritime smuggling is at its highest in the summer season, I think that we can all agree that there is a need to enact the bill as quickly as possible. I am therefore grateful for the support indicated by other parties and the chair of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee in making this happen. I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you very much, Mr Assistant Speaker. As I begin, I just want to acknowledge all those who have kindly turned out in the gallery from the National Party today to hear this speech. It’s a bit of a surprise to me, but I’m thrilled. Thank you very much, everyone!

💬 Hon Member: The good and the great!

The good and the great. No, in all seriousness, I will assure the House that in taking this call, I will end at the right time to enable Dan Bidois to make his maiden speech, and I am very much looking forward to that, as we have, welcoming him to the House.

This is a good piece of legislation, and I am very pleased to stand—as the Minister Meka Whaitiri already knows, I acknowledge that the National Party will be supporting this bill in its first reading and, all things accepted, through the House. Look, as the chair of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee and also the National Party spokesperson for customs I’m very aware of the import—all puns intended—of this bill and the powers that customs need.

Minister, thank you for the work that you have taken here, also acknowledging our former Ministers Tim Macindoe and Nicky Wagner—they have worked hard in this portfolio, and you continue to do so.

At the moment, it’s ambiguous whether or not the New Zealand Customs Service has authority and jurisdiction to intercept and interdict vessels in international waters. It’s very clear that customs can board and seize vessels inside New Zealand’s territorial waters, arguably even into our exclusive economic zone, but beyond that it is not clear. I think, fundamentally, what this bill is seeking to do is to stop any particular legal challenge that might come if New Zealand was to try and enforce what we believe to be our current laws around this. So this tidies things up. It makes things very specific that New Zealand will have the rights to board, to search, and, where needed, to hold ships that are bringing contraband into our country.

Really importantly, it once again aligns New Zealand with our international obligations. It’s no surprise to anyone who sits on the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee that we have a numerous number of treaties. We’ve been looking at a number of them of late, but these ones are particularly around the law of the sea—what’s often known as UNCLOS, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. We have signed up to that, and the long and the short of that is that New Zealand, as a responsible international player, seeks to ensure that drug trafficking is minimised in the world. So I suppose, put in a different way, it’s not really simple for us to just await the drugs to arrive at our border and to try and interdict them there. We have a responsibility, and rightly so, to work with our international partners in international waters—and importantly too. In fact, there are customs officials working in overseas countries who look right from the source of supply. And, really importantly, and I think most in the House would already know or understand this, a lot of the drugs, while they are coming out of Asia, are actually coming from North America as well. Canada I believe is a relatively popular spot. So we are working with those countries as well.

Look, the scourge of drugs—and this is not going to be a long anti-drug element—is a major problem. But, really importantly, it’s the precursors which are coming into New Zealand which are of particular concern at the moment. A couple of weeks ago, I had the good pleasure of being able to take the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee members to visit the New Zealand Customs Service, particularly in their Auckland base, and it was good to talk to the officials and leading officers there about the work that they are undertaking. One of the most notable elements is around precursors, which are being brought in for drug manufacture, particularly for MDMA, or what we would know as ecstasy—sorry, I don’t want to presume that members here would know what’s that’s about; I don’t want them to perjure themselves in the House, privileged or otherwise. But working on these precursors is relatively important and, if I might, I will acknowledge those officials, who now have a successful prosecution for that diamanté horse’s head—a major drug-smuggling there.

So important work is ongoing. Customs, though, needs greater powers, and I think from the National Party’s side—the Opposition side—we are keen to support this. One thing we will be looking at very carefully is how these powers can be used. It probably goes without saying that we, as a Parliament, will not just want to give unfettered powers to the Customs Service, regardless of the good work they do, but unfettered powers for them to interdict ships in international waters is a substantial power that they will be given. We will look closely at the regulations in this bill. We’ll also want to be very clear of how that is reported back, both to the Parliament but also to the Minister, to understand when it’s used. I suppose the fundamental element when great powers are given is that we also expect quite a high level of responsibility as well in that regard.

Importantly, this bill doesn’t sit alone. It is working on a range of legislation that has been passed of late, and particularly by the former National Government. We had worked quite hard as a Government to increase the powers and influence of customs to make sure they protect the borders. I should probably add within that—and quite importantly—something which came through when the select committee was visiting the Auckland Airport side of things, which is that our customs is not simply working on stopping drugs coming into the country. You’re also looking at elements such as objectionable materials, and I suspect too, when it comes to some of the international waters elements, it could be around people-trafficking as well.

So I suppose the encouragement remains that we support the Customs Service in their work. They are keeping us safe through their efforts, and when they come to us—in this case, in a request for a change of legislation to help their work—we say yes, but we do it with caution, as I’ve been saying. Bills like this provide enormous power to a Government agency, so in the select committee we’ll be very interested to hear from, obviously, customs themselves to understand exactly what they’re after, but I, for one, and certainly as the chair of the committee, will be very interested to see what safeguards are in place to ensure that those powers are carefully used. In particular, it’ll be interesting, Minister, as to how they’ll report back either to the Minister or to the Parliament around how those are used.

So, fundamentally, we have a good bill here. As I say, it’s something which needs clearing up. There’s been too much ambiguity to date and I, for one, don’t want to see the Customs Service exercising their current powers and then finding that challenged in the court, and some drug-smuggler is let off on a technicality. I think it’s also fundamentally important that we respect the United Nations. If we’re going to sign up to these treaties, then we need to make sure that we put them into our domestic law as quickly as possible.

But look, as a politician and certainly as a National Party member, I do believe in trying to keep my word. I think, I say to the whips, I have managed to maintain—in fact, the clocks are broken—about the eight or nine minutes required, but I also promised that we wouldn’t keep talking. We wouldn’t keep talking to—even despite what the Speaker might be indicating to me, I won’t keep chewing into Dan’s—[Interruption] They want me to keep going for two—[Interruption] Oh, good Lord! Oh, all right. All right. Well, this is a good insight for people watching at home into how this Parliament works.

Returning to the bill in this last one minute and 40 seconds, look, UNCLOS—there’s always a problem with using acronyms. Look, it’s the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Now I’m sure that has just brought an amazing insight into a number of people in this House, but the other one we haven’t talked about is another—

💬 Hon Gerry Brownlee: How many members?

Well, actually, there’s not enough members at UNCLOS, but the other one is the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. Obviously, narcotics are well understood to us—not, I’m sure, by practical experiences—but the psychotropic side of things is more those which are going to have an effect on your mental state. So the likes of ice—or meth, as we know it—falls into that. The upcoming scourge that’s coming—not, fortunately, to New Zealand at the moment, but it’s harassing America—is the use of fentanyl. That would strike itself more as a narcotic, but that’s our response to the United Nations Convention Against the Illegal Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.

So, again, I suppose the fundamental element is that this bill in the name of Minister Whaitiri is an opportunity for us to align ourselves appropriately to our UN resolutions and to make sure—

💬 SPEAKER: Order!

—that this speech concludes in good order and time.

Thank you. The member will have a few seconds next time the bill comes up.

Debate interrupted.