Maritime Powers Extension Bill

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. It gives me pleasure to be able to rise and speak on the Maritime Powers Extension Bill. I want to start by acknowledging that this work commenced under the previous Government. I do acknowledge the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee report that has been tabled in the House, which indicates that the select committee recommended that the bill proceed. There are a number of amendments made to it.

I think, at this point in time, it appears that unanimity has broken out all over the House in support of this legislation. I think I can pretty much sum it up by saying that all parties in the House are as gravely concerned about the levels of drug trafficking which we have been witness to, the increased level of that, and the potential harm that it poses to our communities, to our society, and particularly to our young people specifically. I don’t think that there’s an MP in the House that doesn’t worry about the well-being of the young people and not-so-young people who wish to indulge in some of these activities. But the fact of the matter is that trafficking drugs into New Zealand, across our borders, is a problem and there has existed an issue around our ability to effectively interdict.

This problem was first looked at by the previous Government, and I know that this current Government looked at that work. Meka Whaitiri, the Minister of Customs looked at that work and decided that it was appropriate to progress this legislation. The legislation, effectively, amends the Customs and Excise Act of 2018 and the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 to incorporate New Zealand’s rights and obligations under article 108 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea—that’s UNCLOS—and article 17 of the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.

It is well known, and I think the previous speakers, including the Minister, have highlighted it, the issues that we face when we know that there is a vessel moving into our waters or towards our waters, or we suspect strongly or we have intelligence to suggest that their intention is not good; that their intention is to, by some means or another—we’ve had examples put before the House of the use of mother ships, where ships sit outside your territorial waters and they liaise with or rendezvous with smaller vessels which then come and pick up their illicit cargo and make their way into shore to connect with those elements who would supply our city streets and do the harm they do. Unfortunately, our laws do not allow us to deploy the assets and the resources that the Defence Force has to conduct these operations. This legislation corrects that.

I just want to remind the House that the Defence Force has a large number of resources that it’s able to make available to customs operations of this sort. Whether it’s the P3, soon to be the P8, aircraft; whether it’s naval vessels; whether it’s offshore patrol vessels; whether it’s the use of policing elements or special force elements to actually assist the navy or assist customs with those boarding operations, what is fundamental and key to the success of those operations is that we as a nation act legally. This legislation enables us to stop, board, and search vessels suspected to be involved in drug smuggling in international waters beyond New Zealand’s 24 - nautical mile contiguous zone.

All I will say is that, from New Zealand First’s perspective, we have long been very firm and clear about our view of this sort of activity. We have seen many examples. I’m holding one such newspaper report here, going back to November 2017—“$20m cocaine bust in Tauranga …”.

Interestingly, we have assisted Fijian authorities most recently in Wasawasa, too, with interdicting a supply of cocaine that was destined for Fijian streets and assisting Fijian authorities. It’s good to be able to do that. We’ve also deployed, through the maritime operations as part of the coalition element, counter-terrorist operations aimed at stopping drug trafficking, which actually finances terrorist operations, and stopping and interdicting gun-running, which equips terrorist operations. Our navy, in conjunction with our coalition partners, has been extraordinarily successful in the past, during the last term of Government, in these operations. It is timely and appropriate that we as a nation give ourselves the powers to interdict these operations off our own shores. On that note, I’d simply say that New Zealand First wholeheartedly supports the passage of this bill.

Kia ora, Madam Deputy Speaker. It isn’t often that I find myself endorsing all of the comments of the Hon Ron Mark, but on this occasion I’m happy to do so wholeheartedly. May I thank him for his generous acknowledgment at the start of his comments of the fact that this is work that began under the previous Government, because for about 20 minutes last year, I had the great privilege of being the Minister of Customs—

💬 Simon O’Connor: What a 20 minutes—what a 20 minutes.

Thank you, Mr O’Connor. Yes, it was a very fine 20 minutes. I’ll work on the principle that less is more, and try to take some credit for this measure. But, in all seriousness, this was a measure that I and others were working on at this time.

There is no question at all that serious drugs such as methamphetamine, cocaine, and other hard drugs are doing enormous damage in communities the length and breadth of New Zealand. It is incumbent, I think, upon all of us as members of this House to do everything we can, within reasonable parameters, to ensure that our authorities have the ability to do the job and to rise to new challenges, which are actually increasing almost on a daily basis at the moment. So, in the spirit of that generous acknowledgment, could I acknowledge the Hon Kris Faafoi, who has, of course, recently taken over the role as Acting Minister of Customs. I wish him well in that role for however long he may hold what is just such a superb portfolio, and what a great privilege it was to be the Minister of Customs.

Could I acknowledge the Minister for the excellent address that he made in introducing this second reading, and say that my only disappointment was that I had so greatly hoped that I would have been the one who would be delivering it, but never mind. I shall get over that and move on. I note that the coalition Government has eagerly embraced the bill and they’re claiming it as their own, and that’s fair enough—they are now the Government—but, as I say, this is a measure that has had its gestation in our time in Government.

So I am delighted to see it return to the House, having had thorough consideration by the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee. As the Minister who spoke before me has done, I too acknowledge my committee colleagues, under the excellent chairmanship of the member for Tāmaki, Simon O’Connor, who has steered this bill through the select committee. I also want to acknowledge the officials, who give us always such good advice on that particular committee, but also the men and women of the New Zealand Customs Service and the Defence Force, who do such an outstanding job in protecting our borders. We cannot overstate how much gratitude we owe them, nor can we overstate how well they do their jobs, because this is a very serious issue.

So I’d just like to pick out a couple of comments—given that this is an interrupted debate, and there’ll be members of the public who will be listening tonight who won’t have heard the speeches last week—just to draw attention, again, as the Minister did, to the fact that the purpose of the bill is to amend the Customs and Excise Act of 2018 and the Misuse of Drugs Act of 1975. People may be surprised to hear it’s the Customs and Excise Act of 2018, but we’ve only just finished that piece of work, which also began under the previous National Government, and this is an important part of ensuring that the changes in the Customs and Excise Act can work to their best effect.

The aim is to provide a clear domestic legislative framework for responding to drug smuggling activity in international waters beyond New Zealand’s territorial sea. In years gone by, those sorts of incursions were fairly rare. Now, they are very common, and while we are a small country—in fact, because we are a small country—the area of international waters that we have to protect is huge. In fact, it is a very daunting task, and those who wish to deal in this pernicious trade of smuggling drugs have, in some ways, quite an easy role because it’s so easy for them to detect capture, particularly if we can only go out to the edge of our contiguous zone. So I welcome very much the extension of powers that this gives.

Monitoring our maritime borders is, of course, a very challenging area for policing. Drug trafficking by small, independent marine craft offers a number of advantages to drug traffickers, and criminal groups have the flexibility to manage and disguise the routing and timing of their voyage to avoid official attention. Ships can land at remote locations or mother ships can transfer drugs to smaller craft, and that is probably happening right now, as we speak in this House. They then bring the drugs to shore and, boy, it can be a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack. So, if detected, the traffickers have the option of trying to outrun enforcement vessels—sometimes they have craft that can do that—and they can move outside our country’s maritime jurisdiction with relative ease.

The aim of this bill is to plug some of those gaps in our legislation, because smuggling drugs has always been a great risk to our nation and, as I mentioned at the outset, probably never more so than it is today. Over the last two years, it’s become apparent that organised crime groups are employing this option more often. There have been 16 reported seizures of illicit drugs using the mother ship method that I mentioned a moment ago in the South Pacific region, with at least four this year alone. So we are talking about a very real, serious, and increasing problem. Some of those drugs were destined for us here in New Zealand; others were destined for Australia.

Because this is a second reading debate, I think it’s customary and appropriate to acknowledge those who made submissions on the bill and also, as I mentioned before, the work of the select committee. I do, as I say, acknowledge the valuable assistance of the officials.

We actually received only three submissions on the bill, and that is one of them. [Holds up submission] It’s admirably brief in its support of the bill, and I do commend the submitter and thank him, nevertheless, for having made it. There’s probably not a lot that I can say other than acknowledging he was in support, but I would like just to comment briefly on the other two because they came at it from a slightly different perspective.

One of those made the point that rather than pursuing this bill, the Government should focus on identifying local production of harmful drugs such as methamphetamine and reducing the harms caused. Now, it’s an interesting point of view, and I understood it, but, nevertheless, I think it probably ignored the vital point that here we are talking about how many, frankly, pretty despicable creatures are out there trying to penetrate our borders. While it’s appropriate, naturally, that we put as many resources as we can into dealing with the drugs once they’re here—and the Customs Service and others in the police do a fine job in that regard, as well—this is about prevention. It’s the fence at the top of the cliff approach, which is much, much better and a much safer option for everybody.

The other submitter who I want to comment on recommended that additional funding should be directed towards enhanced naval combat and offshore patrol capability to ensure New Zealand has the capability to respond to drug smuggling and wider maritime security matters, and I’m sure that was a matter that the Minister of Defence, in particular, took careful note of. We were advised that this particular bill will not substantially increase the demand on the New Zealand Defence Force’s resources, and I think it’s probably encouraging to hear that, because the Defence Force already provides support for customs’ responses to drug smuggling operations, and this is coordinated through the maritime coordination centre.

So I just wanted to acknowledge those three submitters and, as I say, thank them for making their submissions. While we’re not actually recommending changes to the bill as a result of them, we certainly took careful note of their opinions, and we thank them for doing so.

As I’ve mentioned, there have been numerous attempts over the last few years to penetrate our borders with this vile trade, so what we are looking at here is stepping up efforts offshore to disrupt the flow of illicit drugs through greater collaboration with international partners. In addition to relying on specific intelligence, we are also, through customs, able to monitor vessels approaching New Zealand and to determine suspicious movements. We already do that. This will give them the powers to go further out and to broaden their effectiveness, and at the moment there is no legislative basis for them to do that. We’re a little bit out of step with some of our other international partners with whom we often compare ourselves, and I welcome the fact that this bill is looking to plug that gap.

The changes proposed in the Maritime Powers Extension Bill build on the Customs and Excise Bill, as I mentioned earlier, that was passed earlier this year and will, again, be a useful tool in the tool box for those who are doing this important work. It’s fiendishly difficult, but when we look at how serious the problem is of drug abuse is and the distribution of hard drugs, which is undermining communities the length and breadth of this country, everything that we can do to give our authorities the power to stop that pernicious trade is welcome.

I have a personal view that those who smuggle and distribute hard drugs should be treated the same way as murderers because, frankly, they are destroying lives. They not only destroy the lives of those who receive the drugs but they actually destroy the lives of their families and their communities. So, to my mind, it is very serious, and I strongly welcome this bill.

The last member, Tim Macindoe, was admirable in going the full 10 minutes, but I’ve got to take umbrage at the last statement, that hard drug dealers should be treated the same as murderers. It’s the same tough on drugs, tough on crime, soft on the causes of crime approach which for decades has failed us, which for decades has seen high incarceration rates but actually more damage, more harm in our communities. It’s failed—the evidence is clear—but when it comes to what’s happening in international waters, it’s clear that there’s a legislative gap in the system.

There are various international conventions, from UNCLOS—the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea—through to the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. But the issue, of course, is that while we try and interdict drug suppliers coming into New Zealand or, less likely, being exported from New Zealand, there are some legal grey areas regarding those international conventions. That’s why the Green Party supports this legislation, which is, essentially, modernising, harmonising, and cleaning up our interdiction powers under both the Customs and Excise Act 2018 and the Misuse of Drugs Act, to modernise those two laws.

What it does, essentially, is—there’s been this gap when it comes to what’s happening in the international waters. In the territorial sea, New Zealand legislation applies—that’s out to 12 nautical miles. What happens out on the international waters has been subject to some pretty onerous provisions, including trying to contact the flag State of the ship, where you want to interdict or suspect there are drugs on it, and try and get approval, since it’s that flag State that has responsibility over that vessel. Equally so, the New Zealand Government has the responsibility for New Zealand - flagged vessels, but given that there are so many foreign-flagged vessels in the Pacific, in our neighbourhood—many of these ships carry flags of convenience or can switch between countries with more convenient registration laws—it has been very difficult for the Government.

For anyone watching who may not think drugs coming into New Zealand is a problem at all, when you just look at what I understand we’ve seen interdicted in New Zealand’s close neighbourhood—this is between New Caledonia, Australia, and French Polynesia—we saw, in 2017, 237 kilograms of cocaine seized; on 27 July 2017, 1.4 tonnes of cocaine on a yacht off the coast of Tonga; on 12 June this year, I believe, 501 kilograms of methamphetamine; in February 2017, 1.4 tonnes of cocaine in the Tasman Sea from a yacht. We also see multiple tonnes and hundreds of kilograms of drugs being seized. What we want to make sure is that while there’s work to do the research to find potential suspects—there has been this legislative gap. So that’s why we’re very happy to support it.

As the last member pointed out, there were only three submissions to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee—pretty resounding support amongst those three—but it’s important that we do modernise our rules. But I would just urge this House that while we’re dealing with the gaps in our international regime, let’s also fix the very clear and present gaps in our domestic regime. I respect the previous member highly, but there is this, I believe, misguided sense—and when you look at the evidence, it is misguided—that being tough on all drugs is the way to stop those worst, most pernicious drugs which reach our communities.

There was a sense that cannabis, for example, was a gateway drug—

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: Speak to the bill.

—but what we do know is that while this legislation covers drugs such as cannabis—and we know that domestically in New Zealand, $200 million per annum is spent on cannabis enforcement, and that’s both in terms of surveillance and disruption of the courts and justice system—it’s not a gateway drug to those heavier drugs. In fact, what we know is the legal system that we force our young people, and particularly young Māori—

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: Will the member speak to the bill. Just mentioning cannabis in relation to the bill isn’t enough to focus on what this bill is about.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I was just trying to make the point that we need to make sure that while we’re using an evidence-based system internationally, we should do it domestically, and we’re going to have a great opportunity before the next election.

But, look, this is good, modernised legislation. We’re glad it’s been modified and improved marginally in the select committee. It is good legislation that the Green Party is happy to support. Kia ora koutou.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Well, an unsurprisingly soft stance on drugs from Gareth Hughes, the previous member who has just spoken, who was talking about how we need to be focusing not on the impact of drugs but actually on the source of drugs and around education. Well, I’m sorry, but I can’t see many criminal drug traffickers wanting to stop their business on the high seas to sit down for a lesson around the table in the ship’s galley on the potential impacts of drug use. Quite frankly, they’re focused solely on profits and on ensuring they can get those products into our New Zealand environment, and that is something that we strongly oppose on this side of the House.

Actually, it is encouraging to see that the Green members are supporting this bill in this second reading, and I do commend them for that because this is indeed an important aspect to refine both the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 and the Customs and Excise Act 2018. So what we’re really doing here, as we’ve heard from the previous member on this side of the House and one-time excellent customs Minister the Hon Tim Macindoe is that this is really about enabling us to meet our obligations internationally and to ensure that we contribute to the reduction, where possible, of the flow of trafficked drugs across our borders, obviously, extending outside, in this instance, past our territorial waters, 14 nautical miles, and another 14 nautical miles, past the contiguous zone, into those international waters.

One of the key aspects that I think is important here is around the intent. With those boats and ships that are trafficking these drugs and that currently sit outside that zone, we don’t have the capacity under current legislation, and, of course, that’s what this is looking to amend, by inserting a new schedule 5A to actually enable our defence forces and our customs people to reach out, as appropriate, where there is a clear likelihood of drug trafficking being conducted, or about to be conducted, and to act accordingly with that.

Actually, I would just like to take a moment to acknowledge the fantastic work carried out every day by our New Zealand Defence Force personnel and by our customs officers in the environments that they operate in. The risks they are faced with on a regular basis to protect New Zealand to the best of their capacity is admirable, and I certainly thank them for all they do, have done, and will continue to do in that space.

So in terms of this particular bill, there are a couple of aspects that I wanted to highlight around it, really. One, for me, is around international responsibility. As a major player in the Pacific realm, it is very important that as a nation New Zealand does take a strong international leadership role in a raft of different areas. Of course, some of those are around trade, which is very important for us. We recently passed through this House the Tariff (PACER Plus) Amendment Bill relating to the trade deal with a number of our Pacific neighbours, and this is another area where it’s really important for us to take some leadership to demonstrate that, actually, we are adhering to and adopting the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea article 108 and article 17.

So this is really, as I mentioned earlier, enabling that strengthening advancement of powers, perhaps to beyond what we have seen, to give greater flexibility to react to the range of different scenarios that our fine people might be presented with in trying to restrict drug flows. That is one of the areas that has grown, evolved, and presented significant challenges over a number of years now, as these drug traffickers—unsurprisingly perhaps, but surprisingly on one side as well—display increasing variety in the manner of methods in which they try to implement the movement of drugs. They have greater innovative techniques, their complexity has increased, and, indeed, the technology they’re able to harness and utilise as part of everyday society gives them additional options when they’re trying to evade our authorities and bring their products into our country. So it is important that we can evolve with the times and make sure that we remain relevant and current and we are able to operate in an appropriate manner with an appropriate response and in an appropriate time frame to ensure that, actually, we are protecting our citizens as best as possible.

If you look at the stats from 2017, we had over $1 billion worth of drugs seized by our customs people coming into New Zealand—$1 billion. That is a massive amount of damage that could have been done on the streets around our country. Unfortunately, in my electorate, in the Waikato, we have some areas that have drug challenges, as well, as there are all around the country. This is not an area-specific challenge, but it’s something that New Zealand as a whole faces, and so it’s really important that we take any step possible to actually expand our potential and our capacity to negatively impact on the flow of drugs across the borders. Taking that $1 billion out is a fantastic mark of progress.

That’s actually ramped up over the last couple of years. In the year prior, I believe, it was about $800 million, and prior to that it was about $650 million. So it is trending in the right direction, I suppose, although I guess that there’s an element—there could be an argument that it’s hard to say exactly how much is coming across the borders if, indeed, we’re not capturing it all or necessarily seeing it all flowing through to the market as well.

The estimates would suggest that there was about $1.8 billion of drug harm done domestically in New Zealand in 2017, as well. So through that same comparative time frame, $1 billion was stopped through the border, but there was $1.8 billion, unfortunately, in drug-related harm. So I guess, looking at that $1 billion out of $2.8 billion, that’s five-fourteenths, or about 35 percent that we did intercept at the border, which is a great step, but, actually, there’s, obviously, been 65 percent getting through our clutches at this stage.

So the two proposals that we’re looking at under this particular bill will provide greater capacity for our forces, our people out there, to employ the right skills to actually delve into their tool box and to have another option available to them that they can explore or deploy to enable them to react appropriately. That impact on drugs is just something I wanted to touch on, as well, and we heard from the Green member, briefly, about that. Whilst we need to be mindful of what we’re talking about here in the bill, actually, the overall intent is to stop drugs coming into New Zealand, because of the significant negative impact they have in our society, within our young people, often, but also in older people, and the impact that has on families, in particular, and communities even more so.

So anything we can do in that space, I absolutely support, as we do on this side of the House. That’s why I would be very happy to see this pass, and, indeed, I’m happy to see broad support across the House for this as well—in particular, from the Greens, as I mentioned, who are typically not supportive of any additional powers when it comes to the impact that might have on a drug environment, drug traffickers, or any criminals engaged in that sort of activity.

💬 Matt Doocey: Invading farms, they like.

Well, that is an interesting point, because this bill provides powers for defence forces and for our customs agents to extend past our current boundaries, and we saw that just recently, where the Government chose to support the extension of warrantless search powers in a National Animal Identification and Tracing environment. There are some similarities there, but then, on the flip side, when it came to firearms prohibition, they were not prepared to support warrantless search powers.

So with this bill, actually, it’s important to demonstrate clear consistency in the messaging that we’re giving to our forces and the tools we’re providing them with when they look to enact on our behalf safety and security in our border environments. Certainly, I think it’s very key to get that highlighted today, which is why I just wanted to raise that point in particular. Now, when it came to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee’s report, there was very broad support and very wide-ranging agreement on that. There were minor drafting changes within that; otherwise, there was very little made to change it. So it was really about clarity and consistency through those minor drafting changes.

I just want to highlight, in particular, the key change that was proposed off the back of the select committee process: clause 7, inserting new section 12D(2)(c), in terms of adding the controlled drugs or prohibitive equipment or material into New Zealand—so really specifying down, Mr McAnulty, into what it is that we’re looking to capture under this particular bill to ensure that our customs officers have the right powers to secure and protect our borders as they need to. I think that’s something that I would just finish this debate on: that that is absolutely key. I would like to remind the Government of that—all parties in this Labour-led Government—that it is absolutely critical we contain and minimise the drug impact where possible and have a strong stance on crime. Therefore, I commend this bill to the House.

Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. As a member of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, it was my pleasure to hear those three submitters. I speak in support of this Maritime Powers Extension Bill, which, essentially, is creating the legal mandate and justification for our customs officials, our police officials, and our defence officials to stop the supply of illicit narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, which is actually the title of article 108 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea—I’ve just had a look at it. The interesting part of this discussion—I just did a Google search, actually—is the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Europol estimated that the global drug trade is worth $435 billion.

💬 Dr Duncan Webb: How much?

It’s actually—$435 billion, and that was in 2013. There may be some more up-to-date figures. The reality is that this industry is lucrative, so we need to implement measures such as this. I want to agree with my colleague Mr Macindoe. In his previous role as Minister of Customs he was responsible for helping secure $54.2 million for the Customs Service. We know through that investment—because this is a complementary piece of legislation, you’re absolutely right. What have we done with that money? We’ve actually got people on the ground in Washington, Hong Kong, and we will have in South America and South-east Asia, and what I wanted to highlight is that having people in those destinations has meant that $114 billion worth of illicit drugs have not arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand as they were designed to do.

In fact, that’s what this bill is all about. We need to cut supply. We have to do it using whatever tools we have, and these international instruments actually force us to cooperate. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. We need a concerted, collective effort to continually fight against drugs that are doing massive damage in our communities. I don’t have much more to say, other than to commend the bill to the House. Kia ora.

I did overlook the fact that this was a split call. I call Harete Hipango.

Kei te hiahia au te karanga o tēnei Whare mō tēnei pire.

[I would like this House to take a call on this bill.]

Māori Language Week was last week for many, but for those of us who wish to endorse and continue Te Reo, I just simply invited the House to take a call on this bill. I stand to address the House in the second reading of the Maritime Powers Extension Bill. It’s a time now to marry, to extend, and to amend the powers under the Customs and Excise Act 2018 and also the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. To make it clear, National supports this bill, so there’s no “naval-gazing” around this piece of legislation, and, also, it has cross-party support.

To dispense with the puns, I move on now to acknowledge our—

💬 Kieran McAnulty: Oh, sorry. I didn’t realise.

—officers who enforce this legislation. The member across the House indicated that he didn’t realise there were puns. Perhaps it’s indicative of the level of intelligence that comes from that portion. But in so saying, I think it significant to move on to acknowledge, in all seriousness now, the agents who enforce our security in this country, so I do heed and acknowledge our security defence forces: our customs officers, the Ministry of Fisheries, the New Zealand Defence Force, and our police.

This is significant legislation. It’s incorporating into domestic New Zealand law two provisions from international treaties: article 108 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which obliges signatory States to cooperate in suppressing maritime transit of illicit substances and providing a framework for cooperation when one State party has reasonable grounds to believe a ship flying the flag of another State party is engaged in the trafficking of illicit substances.

The other international treaty is article 17 of the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. This provides a framework for States to board, search, and prosecute—in other words, interdict—drug traffickers on the high seas.

💬 Kieran McAnulty: Is that a pun?

So the member, again, across the House, is indicating a level of intelligence that I think is probably quite becoming from the position in the seat that he sits in, and I’m going to refocus back to you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

In summary, the bill makes the following changes to the existing law. That existing law includes—

💬 Hon Member: It just sails right over him.

It does sail, beyond—expanding the powers of The New Zealand Customs Service—that’s customs—to stop, board, and search ships suspected of drug smuggling in international waters, and also establishing offences that apply when an individual is on a ship outside New Zealand waters but intends to smuggle, or is involved in the smuggling of, controlled drugs or prohibited equipment or material in or out of New Zealand.

Interestingly enough, today—and each day does reveal interesting events—I had the pleasure of a visit from the ambassador of the United States of America. In part of that discussion, he brought up the issue around the importance of security and intelligence to our nation. He spoke about Five Eyes. So I’m going to come back to this bill because this is about “custom eyes” in relation to the Maritime Powers Extension Bill.

As we know, drugs are a plague and a scourge on our society, and I mentioned that in my first reading speech to the House. New Zealand has an expansive coastline of some 15,000 kilometres. That is 9,300 miles—and I indicated that that’s the ninth longest in the world.

Time is limited, so I wanted to turn—and this was something “custom eyes” as such. There’s been much discussion in the House from previous speakers about the detail of the bill. But I do wish to reference that in New Zealand, customs is the oldest Government department. It was established on 28 January 1840 in Kororāreka—that’s up in the Bay of Islands. However, prior to that, we must also remember that Māori as first-nation mana whenua were also a trading nations’ people. This is about pulling in the importance of maritime powers extension in relation to ensuring that there are those protections and security. Time is coming to an end, regrettably. I commend this bill to the House so that it sails through to its third reading. Kia ora.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak on the Maritime Powers Extension Bill. It is a bill that does two things: it, basically, gives customs the powers to board ships and look for illicit substances, and one of those most likely to be looked for off the coast of New Zealand will be methamphetamine. Secondly, it also creates new drug offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 for drug smuggling, to enable those powers to come through.

Now, one of the things that has been interesting over the development of drugs entering into New Zealand over the last decade or so has been the change in the way that they’ve arrived on New Zealand shores. Initially, we saw methamphetamine being manufactured here in New Zealand, largely through clan labs and largely through using pseudoephedrine—large amounts were bought from pharmacies and then extracted to make methamphetamine here in New Zealand. That’s changed. What we see now is that the vast amount of methamphetamine brought into New Zealand has been ready-made in other countries and then brought into New Zealand.

I’d just like to pick up on the point already made of this idea of being tough on drugs. If we look at how we got tough on drugs in the past, one of the things done under the previous Government was to reclassify pseudoephedrine—that kind of drug that was quite useful when you had a cold or flu. It was made unavailable to the average New Zealander, and it was made a class B drug. It meant that you needed to go to a GP and get a prescription in order to get that. That has made absolutely no difference, because of the way that drug markets change, and what we’ve seen is a vast increase of the amount of methamphetamine coming into New Zealand, to the point that we got 500 kilograms off Ninety Mile Beach in Northland last year, which completely blew out all statistics—the largest amount ever found. If that’s just a drop in the bucket of the amount of methamphetamine that can reach New Zealand shores, then we should be very concerned.

So I stand in support of this bill, as does the Labour Party, because it’s important that we have the ability to interdict those substances before they reach New Zealand shores. I know that very much of the strategy that customs undertakes is to prevent those substances reaching New Zealand’s shores before they need to. I’d like to note the good work done at the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee. Although there were only three submissions, it’s good to see that the vast majority were in support, with two being in full support of this change to the two major pieces of legislation it covers.

The last point I’d like to briefly touch upon is the importance to state that cracking down on drug trafficking is just one side of the coin; that’s controlling the supply. What we need to also concentrate on—and that’s what this Government is focused on—is also controlling the demand, because you need to have a demand for methamphetamine in order for that supply to be wanted. That’s where it’s important to have drug treatment and have facilities available, not just in New Zealand prisons but also right across New Zealand, so those people who are in need of help for methamphetamine addiction issues are able to be assisted when they need to. That is the most effective way, I believe, that we will curb the drug issues that are confronting New Zealand currently. So, without further ado, I wish to commend this bill to the House.

I just want to start by acknowledging the amazing work that the customs officials do across our country and offshore. There are a number offshore; I believe it’s somewhere in the few-hundred mark—I’m sure the honourable member for Hamilton East—

💬 Hon Tim Macindoe: West.

Sorry, Hamilton West—the one-time customs Minister, the Hon Tim Macindoe, would know. I also want to acknowledge the excellent work by the previous Government and also the Hon Nicky Wagner.

The first time you often come across a customs official is when you see the video just before you fly into one of our international airports, which runs in conjunction with the Ministry for Primary Industries. Then you meet these lovely people on the border. They do an amazing job. They put themselves at risk every single day. For me the hardest part is sort of resisting the urge to pat those beautiful dogs—very cute dogs.

💬 Hon Tim Macindoe: You’re allowed to do that.

Is that right?

💬 Hon Tim Macindoe: You are allowed to.

Thank you, the previous Minister.

I was just having a read of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee report. Unfortunately, this is about the extent of the submissions, which is a little bit disappointing—I believe there were three submissions. I do want to talk to those later on, but this bill has some good objectives, including providing the New Zealand Customs Service with an additional option to disrupt drug smuggling into New Zealand—basically giving them another tool in the tool kit. It also establishes clear rules, clear laws, over offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975.

The bill will amend the Customs and Excise Act 2018 to provide for a framework for how customs may stop, board, search, and take necessary enforcement action in international water. It’s important to note that these powers are consistent with customs’ existing maritime powers in New Zealand, but it’s important to note that they are only limited to a number of situations. Those situations are when customs have reasonable cause to suspect that a drug smuggling offence has been, is being, or is likely to be committed and, in the case of foreign ships, the flag State has authorised actions in accordance with the drug-trafficking convention.

This will enable customs to respond to suspected drug smuggling activities before ships enter into our waters or after they leave. We have been told that the powers proposed in this bill will not be exercised lightly; customs will consider these options available to them and determine the most effective response, along with the other tools available to them. This will establish a clear set of guidelines over drug smuggling offences committed in international water.

The bill also amends the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 to establish offences relating to drug smuggling outside New Zealand. This makes it an offence to be involved in the importation or exportation of controlled drugs, or prohibited equipment or material such as precursor substances, equipment, or materials to be used in producing or manufacturing controlled drugs.

This is a very important piece of legislation. I visited a police station in my electorate yesterday, and they were telling me, they were sharing with me some of the horrific stories of the damage drugs have done in our communities. After that, I visited a lovely lady. Her granddaughter has been addicted to P since the age of 16, and now they’re struggling—really struggling—as a family as to how to help her overcome this horrible, horrible addiction. They also told me that drug dealers are becoming more savvy these days. In the good old days, a drug dealer may have smuggled a few supermarket bags full of cannabis. Now it’s a lot more sophisticated: it’s just small bags of P, which is obviously very hard to track and to capture—with the big supermarket bags of cannabis it’s easy to see, it’s easy to smell—which is a concern.

We know the attempts to smuggle drugs across the maritime border into New Zealand have been increasing in recent years. You only need to look at the recent attempts made to get into our shores. I just want to talk about two examples which just show how extreme and how far the lengths are that criminals will go to smuggle drugs into New Zealand.

You’ll recall back in June 2016 up on Ninety Mile Beach—it was a bit like a movie from Hollywood, really; it played out something like a plot that you would see in one of those movies. In a joint operation with customs, New Zealand Police, and other Government departments, they found 449 kilograms of methamphetamine in the back of a campervan on the beach, and a further 52 kilograms buried at Ninety Mile Beach. Through the excellent work of customs and the police service, two men admitted going in a boat more than 12 nautical miles off Ninety Mile Beach, picking up the drugs from another boat, and then returning back to the beach. Back on the beach the drugs were then handed to other members of the group. What’s great to hear is that the two men were jailed for more than 20 years, and I just want to commend and thank the New Zealand Police and the work of customs for catching these offenders.

In another incident, towards the start of last year, I believe—February 2017—a New Zealand - flagged yacht was intercepted off the coast of Australia near Sydney with 1½ tonnes of cocaine, worth $320 million, on board. Searching the New Zealand and Australian law enforcement agencies websites, it tells me that the yacht sailed over from Tauranga and met the mother ship in the southern Pacific Ocean, where the men helped to transfer dozens of black bags on to their boat.

I just want to acknowledge the previous National Ministers Nicky Wagner and Tim Macindoe. Tim, listening to you earlier in the House, quite clearly you’re an expert in this area. You know how these drug dealers think, and if I didn’t know that you were a previous customs Minister, I would have serious concerns.

The Customs and Excise Bill was introduced by the previous National Government and passed at the beginning of the year, which, back then, enabled customs to deal with the considerable growth in trade and travel. Every single day there’s about 180,000 items that cross the border—whether it’s postage items, whether it’s people—which is a huge amount and a huge increase from some years earlier. It’s actually amazing. I was in Australia recently and I was walking down the corridor and I actually started chatting to a customs official. He was telling me about the sensors they’re about to put in place, which will, basically, automatically detect if you’re carrying drugs or not. I was a wee bit concerned that he did stop me for a yarn.

On that note, I just want to commend the recent rise through the ranks from Minister Faafoi. I heard very positive remarks from the parliamentary rugby game in Napier previously. Hopefully your new roles don’t take you away from those duties. But I hear you did pull an injury, so maybe a bit more training will help.

In January this year, customs launched its newest patrol vessel, Hawk V. This vessel cost the previous Government $4.5 million, and it was designed and built in New Zealand. It’s significantly faster than its predecessor, can handle rougher seas, and contains state-of-the-art technology, including thermal imaging systems to track vessels at night. And it’s great to see that late last year, in Tauranga and Paihia, it led customs to seizing a total of 70 kilograms of cocaine, resulting in five arrests.

This bill will continue to enable customs to take more of a proactive approach, as opposed to a reactive approach; one where, hopefully, it’ll stop drugs getting into our communities and causing such significant harm. And one last final comment, I was interested to see that if you think about people that are caught illegally fishing, then they have to forfeit their fishing gear, their fishing boat, their fishing vessel—it’s interesting to see that this bill will require people to forfeit their vessels. Obviously there’s a large capital upfront cost to purchase a vessel to take your drugs across waters. So a bit like under the fishing rules, where you have to forfeit your fishing equipment, I think this is a very good initiative.

I just want to, once again, commend this Government for taking on the previous Government’s work and I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I rise to take a call on the Maritime Powers Extension Bill, which makes two tweaks that sound pretty simple but have some significant implications. Currently, there’s no legislative basis in New Zealand’s domestic law to exercise customs powers in international waters in respect of ships that are suspected of attempting to traffic drugs into New Zealand, and this amendment bill will change that.

It, basically, empowers customs to be able to board and search and take enforcement action in international waters, and it amends the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 to create offences relating to drug smuggling in international waters outside of New Zealand. Basically, what we have now is domestic law that governs what’s known as New Zealand’s territorial sea, which is about 12 nautical miles out from the shore, and what’s known as the contiguous zone, which is, sort of, 12 to 24 nautical miles. But beyond that, which is international waters, we have no powers—or customs has no powers now—to respond to ships that are potentially smuggling drugs and are in those waters. There’s always been a risk of organised criminal groups evading border control, but of late we’ve seen that it’s happened more often than not—a small number of cases, but typically they’re at the very highest end of offending.

This bill will allow customs an additional tool to intercept drug smuggling, and this, of course, is one part of what this Government is doing to address the issue of the drug epidemic, which also includes investing $8 billion over four years in health, and making mental health and addiction a priority. So without further ado, Madam Deputy Speaker, I commend this bill to the House. Thank you.

Bill read a second time.