Maritime Powers Extension Bill

on behalf of the Minister of Customs: I move, That the Maritime Powers Extension Bill be now read a third time.

This bill amends the Customs and Excise Act 2018 and the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 to provide a clear domestic legislative framework for responding to drug-smuggling activity in international waters beyond New Zealand’s territorial sea. There is a simple reason for this bill, and it is a reason that has the agreement of both sides of the House: we do not want illicit drugs entering this country of ours. New Zealand has made commitments under international conventions to suppress the smuggling of illicit drugs. The absence of a domestic legal framework and relevant smuggling offences has made it difficult for agencies to fulfil our obligations in situations where there is clear evidence that a smuggling operation is under way.

Agencies such as the Customs Service and New Zealand Police do, of course, have other options available to respond. They can wait until the drugs come into New Zealand’s territorial waters or, as is happening increasingly, they can work closely with offshore partners to stop drugs from leaving other countries. This bill addresses the gap that currently exists between these two points: the vast expanses of ocean that separate New Zealand from the rest of the world. It provides the tools for customs and other agencies to proactively target transnational organised criminal groups that are targeting New Zealand, including those that remain in international waters.

Firstly, the bill amends the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 to make drug smuggling in international waters an offence under New Zealand law. Secondly, it amends the Customs and Excise Act 2018 to allow customs to board and search ships and take action against individuals that are suspected of committing these offences. The bill includes safeguards to ensure these powers are used appropriately.

New Zealand is taking a health approach to illicit drugs, but that does not mean we are neglecting the supply side of the problem. Without the job that customs and police do in controlling the supply and stopping the criminals responsible, both in New Zealand and offshore, the problem will be much worse. We already have much work under way, with police working on organised crime and investing in our ability to target drug smugglers. Budget 2018 invested $54.2 million of operating funding over four years to significantly enhance customs’ capabilities to attack these criminal networks from all angles. This includes an additional 127 customs staff both here and overseas.

This bill provides agencies with an additional tool to protect our borders and minimise the harm caused by illicit drugs. I welcome the support of both sides of the House for this bill. We also want to thank the members of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee once again for the constructive and expeditious way that they approached the consideration of this piece of legislation. I commend the bill to the House.

Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker. It’s my pleasure to stand and take a call on this, the Maritime Powers Extension Bill. You know, the timing of the bill is very good, obviously, in terms of the challenges that we face as a coastal nation, and the fact that we’ve seen some very high-profile recovery of drugs and illicit contraband that has somehow been smuggled and actually dropped offshore. I know we had a very big recovery of a large quantity of drugs in Northland last year.

Can I just go back and acknowledge the Minister that took the first call, Peeni Henare, and just support his comments around the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee. Although I don’t sit on that committee now, I was a member of that committee, and I want to acknowledge the work that they have done on this. I know that they are a very bipartisan committee and that they would have been working very hard to make sure that a good bill was brought back to the House, so could I please acknowledge them.

Like I was saying, this bill is important because it, effectively, means we are strengthening the ability to actually protect our borders. Whether we like it or not, even though we’re a relatively small trading nation down the bottom of the world, we are not immune to the global challenges, especially around the trafficking of illicit drugs and contraband. So it’s very important that we have strong, cohesive legislation that allows our Customs Service to have all the tools, all the legislation, the services, the training, and the personnel that they need to be able to manage and protect our borders.

Like I said, recently there have been some very clear examples of, actually, the people, the criminals, the organised groups, the organised crime groups that dedicate their lives to finding ways of defeating our border patrols and our border security. They have been successful in being able to actually find different and inventive ways of trying to get these illicit drugs and contraband into the country, so I think the timing of the bill is very good.

I just want to finish by, again, acknowledging the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, and I’m very happy to recommend this, the Maritime Powers Extension Bill, to the House. Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker.

Mr Assistant Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to take a call on the Maritime Powers Extension Bill. I would like to echo the comments of the previous member, Mark Mitchell, around the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, of which I am a member. I would like to acknowledge the chair, Simon O’Connor, who does an excellent job leading a very bipartisan and positive committee. Thank you, sir.

Look, this is a very important piece of legislation, and we have agreement across the House, which is fantastic. The Maritime Powers Extension Bill would amend the Customs and Excise Act 2018 and the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. It seeks to incorporate into domestic law two provisions in international treaties to which New Zealand is a party. The first point there is around article 108 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. This obliges signatory States to cooperate in suppressing the maritime transit of illicit substances. Now, these illicit substances, particularly meth and cocaine, are two of the major ones. If we can stop these drugs coming into our country in the first place, we go a long way to help make our society a lot better.

Another aspect around this is working with our Pacific neighbours, because we’ve got vast expanses of ocean out there, and some of our Pacific neighbours don’t quite have the resources that we may have—for example, Kiribati. The small island of Kiribati has an economic zone the size of the United States of America. They’ve got one ship to patrol that whole zone. With us working with countries like Kiribati, like Tonga, Samoa, and all of those Pacific nations, we can work together around this fight on drugs.

This bill does a number of things. Firstly, it provides a framework for customs to board, search, and take enforcement action in international waters. At the moment, customs can only operate in our 12-mile radius. However, this bill gives them the opportunity, when they recognise the drugs are there, to search and take enforcement action. Secondly, it amends the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 to establish offences relating to drug-smuggling in international waters outside of New Zealand. Some of the key things that it allows customs to do are to stop, board, and search suspect ships. It gives customs the power to arrest individuals. It allows the detention of a ship, including the power to direct, and the seizure and forfeiture of prohibited items, controlled drugs, and precursor substances, as well as the ship if detained under clause 7.

This is an excellent bill because it’s another step in the war on drugs, and it’s another step around collaboration with our Pacific neighbours. It’s about working together to keep our country and their country safe from this plight of drugs. I acknowledge the Minister and all of those who have worked hard to pass this bill through the House. I commend this bill to the House. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr Assistant Speaker. I’m pleased to be taking a call on this Maritime Powers Extension Bill as we now enter its third reading. I’m sure, like the member who has just resumed his seat, Jamie Strange, and along with other members, it’s feeling all quite familiar because we’ve spoken on this quite frequently.

I apologise, obviously, to the members of the House and those listening if this is somewhat repetitive. Normally, we have weeks if not months in between our speeches—in a sense, an opportunity to provide some new material. Why we are repeating, if you will, ourselves somewhat quickly is because the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee realised, along with the various Ministers who have been responsible for this bill, that this is an important piece of legislation not only in its own right, which I will elaborate on, but it’s also important that we get it in play as soon as possible.

The committee agreed informally—and I might stress why that was important—to expedite or speed this bill through the select committee process. I think it’s been recognised from the Government side, too, that we should keep bringing this up the Order Paper to debate it, so that what’s been proposed in this bill can come into law very soon and, ultimately, help with New Zealand’s continued efforts, along with its Pacific allies and, actually, allies in the wider world, around the stopping of illicit drugs.

Why I say it was an informal agreement is it was really important from the select committee point of view that we made sure we did listen to everyone who wanted to be heard and we took the appropriate time to engage with the official advice. As I had mentioned in a second reading speech a couple of weeks ago, we received only three submissions on this, and they were relatively brief. In fact, one was really just two words in agreement with the bill.

I just want to put it on the record that while the committee moved very swiftly, this was not to rush the process. This was, instead, to just ensure that we didn’t have to slow it down in any way, and nor did we just have to wait the sort of requisite six weeks of hearings and so forth.

So my thanks once again go to the committee members for their work on this bill. As the member who has just resumed his seat noted, the committee works very well—bipartisan, even. It’s probably tripartisan, strictly. There are three parties formally on the committee at the moment, and I think we all understood right from the start that this was an important and useful piece of legislation.

So, again, can I acknowledge the Ministers who have been involved with this—speaking later, I’m sure. Tim Macindoe—while this was not his legislation, it will be something that he was very familiar with. We’ve then, obviously, had further Ministers, now in Government, who have championed this. As has been articulated by previous speakers, this is a bill which enables New Zealand not just to stop vessels on the high seas but, really, and importantly—in fact, fundamentally important is the ability for New Zealand to then prosecute those vessels, those owners, those who were actually bringing the drugs in.

As I’ve highlighted in earlier speeches, there’s a potential loophole in the current law. I say “potential” because it hasn’t been tested in the courts, and I think the Customs Service, rightly, don’t want to have the potential loophole tested in the courts, and that’s, fundamentally, that under various UN conventions such as UNCLOS, which is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, New Zealand is able to stop—often the term used is the term is “interdict”—vessels on the high seas, be they flagged or non-flagged. So flagged, very simply, means they’ll have the flag of a particular country. We are able, when we have reasonable suspicion, to stop those vessels, and similarly for vessels that have no flag, our navy in particular is able to stop those vessels.

Again, we don’t just stop vessels on the high seas, or in international waters, for no reason. There has to be a certain degree of suspicion. But in cases where we are suspicious of those vessels, usually because of intel that’s been gathered by the likes of the New Zealand Customs Service, we can stop those vessels, board, and search where it does happen, and it happens, sadly, often enough, that illicit drugs precursors are found.

There was a question, then, of whether we could actually prosecute those people under New Zealand law. And so, fundamentally, this piece of legislation says, “Well, actually, it will be domestic New Zealand law.”, and if such a ship is interdicted, those smuggling the drugs, smuggling the precursors—in fact, probably any illegal substance or material—can be prosecuted in a New Zealand court of law. So it is, I think, a very positive piece of legislation.

The member who resumed his seat talked about the Pacific. New Zealand has always had a very strong connection to the Pacific—that goes without saying. We happen to be in the Pacific, which makes it sort of a non sequitur, but we have a very strong relationship. It’s been ongoing and continuous, and it’s good to see that this current Government does continue that. Very little has actually changed. We continue our engagement there, but, importantly, part of this legislation enables New Zealand to engage with its Pacific neighbours. As members will know and understand, obviously, a lot of those countries do not have large or significant navies. They don’t have the intel abilities and the sophistication of the New Zealand Customs Service. So we’re out there assisting to protect not only New Zealand’s borders and New Zealanders but also our Pacific neighbours. And you think of the likes of Fiji and Samoa and Tonga, and in the much wider context, of course, we engage with the United Kingdom and the likes of France, particularly around our military and customs coordination.

It’s not just about the New Zealand Customs Service, but can I acknowledge them for the important work they do. They were very clear to us that we’re entering a somewhat busy season around drug smuggling. Hence—well, it probably then becomes obvious to the House why we’re wanting to pass this legislation now, as we anticipate and enter the busy season. Can I thank them for the work that they lead—importantly, too, acknowledging the Minister of Defence here, as I have before, and the work of the New Zealand Defence Force, particularly the Royal New Zealand Navy. They do a tremendous job, and it’s their assets which the likes of customs use. And on the side of this, but always in full cooperation, we have the Ministry for Primary Industries as well. So this is a cross-governmental agency approach, and they’re doing a fantastic job there.

It’s really, I suppose, a fundamental principle which is trying to be applied here. I mean, first and foremost, making sure that we apply the laws correctly, as you would expect, but, even more importantly, it is better to stop these illicit substances, these drugs, reaching New Zealand shores in the first place. We could, arguably, just sit here behind our border and see what comes in, but, actually, it’s good if we can get out there—in this case, in the international waters, outside of our exclusive economic zone—and interdict these drugs earlier, or, importantly, if these non - New Zealand flagged ships are in our waters, that we can also engage them there. I do know, quite rightly, that we have already some assets in other countries who are, effectively, providing intelligence so that we can work out where the drug smugglers are operating from, and I think that’s vitally important. Basically, everything that we can stop coming to our shores is a problem that we avoid.

Fundamentally, we’re avoiding problems that affect New Zealanders, because, at the end of the day, when these drugs come into New Zealand they cause harm. There is no good in these illicit substances, and I know there are some in this House who argue simply that these drugs should always be treated as a health issue. I think that’s terribly, terribly naive. There are health aspects to drug use, but there are also criminal aspects to drug use. In fact, when you ever hear those who are arguing that we should treat pretty much all drugs as a health issue, what they’re fundamentally saying is that, basically, certain individuals should be able to do whatever they want to do without consequence, and we—the rest of New Zealand—will have to pay to fix them up. And, actually, I don’t think that’s right or just.

So, in concluding—and it is somewhat breaking the concord of the committee—I am disappointed, and they all go quiet for a second. It’s the disappointment that New Zealand has not, in recent days, agreed to join America and most other countries in the global call to action around drugs. I think there’s cheap politics at work in that, unfortunately, because this is not, arguably, a continuation of the war on drugs but, actually, a coordinated effort by, I think, well over a hundred nations, led by America, to work at stopping the illicit drug trade, and particularly doing things very similar to this bill, which is, “How do we interdict and stop drugs crossing the border?” So, sadly, it is a missed opportunity there. I don’t think it’s a great sign of leadership in that regard, but I would ask the Government and the Minister in particular to re-look at that, to talk to our Prime Minister and say, “This should have been signed up to.” But I commend the bill, at its final reading, to the House.

Tēnā koe e Te Māngai. I rise to take a short call—

💬 Simon O’Connor: No, take a long one!

Well, Mr Simon O’Connor, you have made such a valiant effort and have gone into such depth and detail, that a short call is what is needed at this point on the Maritime Powers Extension Bill, which gives us, basically, a clear legislative framework so that we can intercept and respond to drug-smuggling activity in international waters.

There are two simple reasons why we need this bill. The first is that the one thing we can all agree on from different sides of this House is that we want to stop drug smuggling, or drugs from entering New Zealand, and so we need to address the supply side of the issue. The second is that we want the Customs Service to have the powers to intervene when ships are in international waters, because at the moment they don’t. The tools that they have allow them to intervene when these ships are in New Zealand territorial waters but not international. So it’s not good enough for us to wait till ships and individuals reach New Zealand and intercept them; we want to get in there early. This bill does two things. It amends the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 to make drug smuggling in international waters an offence. Secondly, it amends the Customs and Excise Act 2018 to allow customs to intervene, as I just mentioned.

This bill is not controversial. There is support from both sides of the House, and it sits well within this Government’s strategy to address drug harm, completely contrary to what the member who just resumed his seat, Simon O’Connor, has said. Although this Government has an evidence-based focus on reducing drug harm by treating it as a health issue, it does not mean that we don’t want to interrupt the supply side of the issue. That’s what this bill does.

I acknowledge the current Minister, the former Minister, and all those who have worked on this bill to get it to where it’s at now, and the select committee as well for their work. With that, I commend this bill to the House.

Kia ora e Te Mana Whakawā. Peace and harmony have broken out across the House once more, and I am struck by the irony of the fact that I think I’ve spoken in the House today more often in a single day than I have ever before in my nearly 10 years of a political career, and for most of the day I have been railing against a bill that I have truly despised and have done my level best to stop, and now I find myself, ironically, in the position not only of welcoming this bill but of wanting to thank the Government for bringing it to the House, because, as has been alluded to by one or two of the previous speakers, this was a bill that I was working on in my brief time as Minister of Customs. I am truly delighted to see that it has reached this point and am impressed that we are now dealing with the third reading of it.

If you’ll allow me to digress just for a moment, there is a point to this. Yesterday, there was an investiture ceremony at Government House, and I am particularly delighted to see that among the recipients who received their honours yesterday was Sir Bill English. I want to acknowledge him for his leadership of our country and also the fine support that he received from his lovely wife, Dr Mary English, and I’m so thrilled that members of the family, including some of their delightful children, were able to be there to acknowledge that.

The reason I bring that in, apart from the fact that I want to acknowledge Bill, of course, is the fact that while he was the Prime Minister, this was a bill that I and others were working on very much with his encouragement and with his understanding, because Bill English understood just what incredible harm illicit drugs and, particularly, serious drugs such as methamphetamine are doing in communities the length and breadth of this country. And so I know that Sir Bill English also would be delighted to see that we’ve reached this point today, and that is why I was particularly pleased to have an opportunity to acknowledge his investiture.

As Jamie Strange mentioned a few moments ago, when he was speaking, one of the great challenges that we face in New Zealand is that we’re a small country with vast areas of water to patrol. It’s been well explained that a major limitation that our Customs Service and other enforcement agencies face at the moment is that they can only go so far out, and yet the threat is coming from much further out, and it’s coming from so many different directions. I don’t want to name the countries from which some of those drugs are coming, but I can tell the House that members might be surprised to hear where some drugs originate from. And I can see the Minister of Defence nodding because he will be aware—as the navy is, obviously, a part of this equation—just what a huge challenge that faces.

💬 Hon Member: Hamilton.

No, sir, they do not come from Hamilton. Although, sadly, to the best of my knowledge no illicit vessel has ever made its way down the Waikato River out to sea at Port Waikato, and, if they had, I’m delighted to assure the member that they would have been well within the territorial zone that already is under our ability to enforce our illicit drug seizure powers. But I thank him for his intervention none the less, and I apologise if I’ve embarrassed by picking up on his interjection.

But Jamie Strange is right in making that comment. We do have to ensure that we take every step we can to deal with the changing realities. These incursions were few and far between only a few years ago; now they are increasingly frequent. Every time one of these incursions is successful and these appalling drugs land on our shores, there are victims in our communities, and we see that happening. Every day, lives are destroyed by these drugs, so everything we can do to empower our enforcement agencies to get on top of the problem or at least to reduce the damage is good for all of us.

So I do want to acknowledge particularly the fine folk at the New Zealand Customs Service. I’ve said it before—I’ll say it again—I was so proud to be their Minister, and, in the brief time I had the opportunity to get alongside them and to study all aspects of the work they were doing and to help advance the initiatives that they brought to my attention that were so important, my admiration increased on a daily basis. They do a fine job for us, and we’re so fortunate to have their services.

I congratulate the Hon Kris Faafoi on being confirmed in the role, but I also want to acknowledge the Hon Meka Whaitiri, because she did do a lot of this work that she picked up from the previous Government and converted into a legislative form, and here we are today dealing with it at its third reading. I know that it’s widely supported around the House, and credit is due to her for the work that she did during the time she was in this portfolio on this particular challenging issue.

In my second reading speech, I made the point that there were only three submissions to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee on this particular bill. That, in itself, would indicate that there certainly wasn’t much opposition to it. It may, however, of course, have indicated there wasn’t a great deal of awareness of it. But two of those submissions were very broadly in support. One was much more guarded and was, effectively, suggesting to us that we should be focusing our efforts more on boosting resources domestically—in other words, as the drugs are coming into the country. There’s no question we want to be doing everything we can to intercept the drugs as they arrive in New Zealand. Again, the different agencies that do that work are very successful, but we don’t know what slips past them, because, obviously, we don’t know what we don’t know, until we see the consequences of drugs ending up in our small communities. So I’d simply say to the submitter who was arguing that we shouldn’t be moving in this direction but rather putting the emphasis on more domestic provision that while I respect that view, I would argue that circumstances are changing. We know that we are under increasing threat from the high seas and, therefore, this is an appropriate move for us to be making.

As a committee, we were naturally privileged to receive very detailed official advice, and, as this is a third reading, members of the public who may be listening—either in the gallery or watching on television at home—would want to know why this Maritime Powers Extension Bill is needed and what the problems are that we’re trying to deal with and what is hoped that we will achieve.

So, if I may, I’d just like to quote from some aspects of that official advice: “It is critical to ensure that law enforcement agencies have access to the full suite of options to disrupt and dismantle the organised crime groups bringing these substances into New Zealand.”—for organised crime groups they are. And one of the things that frustrates me—and I imagine this is a view probably shared across the House as well—is that it’s relatively easy to catch the low-level criminals. Often, they’re the ones on the ground here in New Zealand receiving and distributing the drugs. It’s much harder to catch the very sophisticated, high-level criminals, who are pretty clever and know how to escape detection. “Without constraining the availability of illicit drugs in our communities, it will be difficult for demand reduction and treatment options to be effective.”, and yet long term this is all about trying to minimise the harm that serious drugs do in our communities.

There has always been a risk of organised criminal groups evading border controls through the use of dedicated ships to transport illicit drugs into New Zealand. However, over the last two years it’s become clear that criminal groups are increasingly using this method to smuggle drugs into New Zealand and more widely across the region, and so that is why this bill is absolutely crucial.

We are, in New Zealand, a party to international conventions which require us, oblige us, to cooperate in the suppression of drug trafficking by vessels in international waters and to take the necessary legislative and administrative measures to address the problems effectively, and that’s what we’re doing here today. So this bill will gives customs, in particular, the clear ability to deal with vessels trafficking drugs through international waters with New Zealand as a target, with the objective of stopping these drugs from getting into New Zealand, and it will also ensure that any drugs or other evidence can be seized and individuals can be arrested and prosecuted in New Zealand, and that’s why the commensurate piece of legislation that’s the other part of this equation is the amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act.

In the final minute that is available to me, can I just return to the point with which I started and say that I am truly delighted to welcome this bill back to the House. I want to acknowledge the leadership of Simon O’Connor and all of my colleagues on the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee for the considerable energy and focus that they brought to this particular work. Again, I pay tribute to all of the officials who have helped to advise the committee, to draft the legislation, and to all of the Ministers who have played a role in bringing this legislation together.

This is a bill that matters in each and every one of our communities in New Zealand. This is a bill that will make a real difference to reducing the harm done by hard drugs. So that is something for us to celebrate; that is something that, naturally, we have an obligation to support our agencies to enable them to deliver the best results they can for us. So congratulations to everybody involved. As I said, peace and harmony has broken out. I hope also that the incidence of drug importation and abuse in our community will go down accordingly.

Thank you. It is always delightful when a bill actually comes to us in the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, and it’s generally also pretty exciting, because we get to connect this Parliament and New Zealand to some exciting developments in international law, as we are doing in this bill. We’re bringing New Zealand’s law into line with a couple of UN conventions that we’re signed up to. We will be, after this bill is passed, compliant with article 108 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and article 17 of the UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. So it’s nice to know that we’re doing our fair share internationally and, in particular, in the Pacific to monitor and to bring the international rule of law to life. Obviously, the trafficking of illicit drugs is a problem that this Government is concerned with, and this is just one part of a plethora of mechanisms that we’ll be using to keep our communities safe.

This is a technical bill. It amends a couple of different Acts: the Customs and Excise Act and the Misuse of Drugs Act. While we were hearing from those three submitters and also from the officials—and I think we pushed those learned and talented officials a little bit, because there were a few of us, unfortunately for them, who were lawyers, and so we really engaged with this very technical bill—for me, one of the things that was important was to know whether or not we were actually extending customs’ powers to search, or whether we were, in fact, doing what we intended to do, which was just to extend the geographic area that comes under their jurisdiction now. I was happy to find that, actually, the search and seizure powers of customs were still going to be regulated stringently. So the power remains as it ordinarily is, which is the power to board and search a vessel if the customs officials have the reasonable belief that a crime that already comes under their jurisdiction has been committed on that vessel.

The reasonableness standard makes it objective; so they would be able to be tested—were their power to search challenged in a court—and they would have to show an objective basis for suspecting that the vessel was involved in committing one of these crimes. That’s important, because we don’t actually want to extend the power to search beyond that reasonableness standard, and the word “belief” actually places it at quite a high standard as well—so it goes beyond just a mere suspicion. That was important to me because, of course, we still have to uphold the rule of law in those terms as we are extending our application of the rule of law geographically. So I was pleased to know that we’re still maintaining those high standards.

As others have said, this work will be really important for our Pacific neighbours. We know that a number of our small Island nation neighbours in the Pacific are currently being used as between points for drug traffickers, and we know that drug trafficking brings with it a range of other drugs. So it is dangerous for the Pacific, and this is part of New Zealand doing our fair share of that monitoring work. For my sins, I also hold the defence portfolio—which I actually love—and, as part of that work, I’m well aware of the massive amount that our defence forces already contribute to monitoring in the Pacific, whether that’s for environmental reasons or whether that’s monitoring of this kind. It’s nice to know that we’re going to be contributing even more in this way, and I think it will be appreciated.

To put this into perspective, in terms of the problem that we’re helping to solve, at the close of the last year that the measurements were taken for—so, 2017—New Zealand interdicted among its close neighbours, which are New Caledonia, Australia, and French Polynesia, and we stopped around 501 kilograms of methamphetamine. Now, we know, again, from the last annual reports on justice that came through this House, that methamphetamine is a drug that’s about to overtake even cannabis in its prevalence in our courts and our criminal justice system, and that’s not just to say, you know, mere possession charges. That actually is the most serious of charges: the supply, the manufacture, and the importation of methamphetamine, a class A drug. Basically, our High Court has no more capacity to deal with other types of serious crime; certainly, in Auckland, much of what they do is serious methamphetamine-based crimes. We’ve tried upping the sentences to life imprisonment, and, in fact, the proliferation of that type of offending has only been done faster and at a much higher scale as we’ve upped sentences. Now, regularly, people are being sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment. That’s not working. But part of the package of keeping our communities safe will be stopping drugs being imported into New Zealand, at least.

The other side of that, of course, is important to keep in mind, because this isn’t the only way that we’re going to stop drug crimes, and, in fact, if our focus is on stopping harm that might be caused by drugs, our focus has to be on that demand end. It has to be on the types of social issues that cause addiction and on actually treating that addiction. We know that’s going to involve a lot of investment in things like mental health services. We know drug addiction is often underpinned by mental health issues like serious anxiety, PTSD—these are the kinds of people we’re locking up. We’re spending billions of dollars on that, and it has failed. So we will be stopping drugs entering New Zealand and, at the same time, we’ll be investing in social services and addiction treatment, in mental health care, in jobs, in actual healthcare, and in housing to keep that kind of social security that will keep our communities healthy and drug-free—if they want to be! But, at the same time, not only is it really important that we do our fair share to keep our broader Pacific community safe and ourselves safe against the importation of drugs, it’s also important that, with the passing of this bill, New Zealand will contribute to upholding the international rule of law. So I commend the bill to the House.

Mr Assistant Speaker, thank you, and it’s a pleasure to rise and speak in this debate. It is an important piece of legislation. It provides important tools to New Zealand’s Customs Service to protect our border and to be able to push out through the 12-mile zone to make sure that where there are ships on their way to New Zealand or leaving New Zealand that could cause New Zealanders harm through the importation of illicit drugs or peddling drugs passing through New Zealand to other nations, they will have the tools to stop these ships, to hold the people on board to account, and to take necessary action.

Why is this important? If I go back and think of the evolution of drug trafficking in New Zealand over a period of time, we have seen it escalate. Those who are bringing illicit drugs to New Zealand with the sole desire of profiting from the harm and misery they cause New Zealanders have found new and innovative ways to bring these poisons, these drugs, to the country. Indeed, we were told, when we sat on the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, that there’s around $1.8 billion worth of social harm done every year in New Zealand to New Zealanders as a result of the consumption of illicit drugs.

💬 Hon Member: How much?

There’s $1.8 billion worth of harm. If we go back to 2015 and look at what was imported, or at least what was confiscated by our Customs Service and our border officials—who work very hard on our behalf—customs and police intercepted 293 kilos of illicit drugs, compared to 2014, which was just 105 kilos. So we’re seeing, as early as 2014-15, more than a doubling—almost a tripling—of illicit drugs being confiscated at our borders.

In 2016, there was a whopping $875 million worth of potential harm restricted or stopped at the border, when illicit drugs were stopped. Indeed, at that time, I remember saying, when we were in Government, that, actually, we needed to redouble our efforts to give the tools to our services to police our borders better. In 2017, that was $1 billion worth of harm—897 kilograms of drugs were stopped at the border. The vast majority was ephedrine for the manufacture of methamphetamine, or P, and also methylene dioxy-methyl amphetamine, cocaine, cannabis—a raft of drugs.

Interestingly, psychoactive substances started to show themselves again in the work that our police and our officials did, so it was important to give them the tools. Of course, when we had the committee stage of this legislation and I had an opportunity to talk, I canvassed, actually, the origins of this legislation. It was introduced by the last Government, the National Government, and, as we’ve brought this forward, I’m very pleased that the new Government has decided to continue it, to put it into law. It’s a shame that it’s taken more than a year, because these new abilities and tools have been necessary for some period of time.

So what will this allow our Customs Service to do? Well, at the moment, if they believe there is a ship coming towards New Zealand that is involved in the transportation, the manufacture, or the illicit control or possession of drugs, they are really only able to intercept that boat or that ship when it comes into our territorial waters, which is 12 nautical miles. Outside of that, there have been questions raised, based on other conventions we’re in, about exactly the legal jurisdiction we would have. Well, what this legislation does is it extends the ability of our Customs Service out through the territorial waters, into the contiguous zone of New Zealand, up to 24 nautical miles offshore—so that’s from 12 nautical miles to 24 nautical miles.

There are a number of checks and balances we’ve put in place to make sure that these powers are used properly. Customs must have reasonable cause to suspect that drug-smuggling offences have been, are being, or are likely to be committed, and, in the case of a foreign ship, the flag State of that ship have authorised actions in accordance with the drug-trafficking conventions that New Zealand has signed. We need to establish clear jurisdiction over drug-smuggling offences committed in international waters, and this legislation also does this. It allows our officials to seize not only the illicit drugs and for any paraphernalia used to store or produce drugs to be forfeit, but the ship itself can also be forfeit. So we’re talking about controlled drugs or precursor substances.

I think it was last year that we heard from our media that police and customs had intercepted boats on their way to New Zealand as they came up on the shore with significant amounts of precursors to manufacture methamphetamine—a horrible drug that does nothing but harm, that poisons, and that ruins lives all over New Zealand when it is sold and when it is consumed. Of course it’s important that our officials, through intelligence and other means, were able to intercept them when they got on the shore, but it would be much better if they were able to do so much further from shore, so that we can ensure that there is much less chance of these poisons, these drugs, arriving here.

I commend this bill to the House. I’m glad it’s going through its third reading. It is an important piece of legislation. One of the previous speakers in this debate, the Hon Tim Macindoe as the former Minister of Customs, can be proud of having brought the legislation to the House. The previous National Government can equally be proud to have brought the legislation to the House. The House should know that it is doing an important thing to help protect New Zealanders by passing this legislation unanimously today to give tools to our hard-working border officials, and to stop the merchants who peddle illicit drugs in New Zealand and who harm New Zealanders. Thank you.

This is a split call of five minutes. I call Jan Tinetti.

Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker. Interestingly enough, even though I’m not on the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee that looked at this bill and investigated it—although, I have filled in a couple of times—I got to speak on this bill in the first reading, as well. Strangely enough, at the weekend, I was meeting some colleagues that I hadn’t seen for quite some time, and they said that the one speech they had seen me do in this House was on the first reading of this bill. So, hopefully, they’re watching again tonight. Ha, ha!

💬 Hon Member: Made such an impression.

Made such an impression.

I tautoko everybody else and what has been said by everyone else in the House here this afternoon about the importance of this piece of legislation. I want to speak about it, particularly from a personal point of view, and despite what was said in the general debate, being accused by the Hon Scott Simpson of coming from the South Island—I actually do come from Tauranga—this is a big issue for us in Tauranga around the smuggling of illicit drugs. That was brought to a head to us in November last year when we had a $20 million load of drugs that was seized at the port. Now, we do some wonderful work, and our customs staff do some wonderful work, at that port—absolutely exceptional. But this bill adds another tool for those particular wonderful people that we have, to ensure that we can work even harder on that war on drugs.

So I’m pretty excited for the people who are really working at that coalface every day to see this particular bill going through. I’m excited that it has the support of both sides of the House, and I commend this bill to the House.

I call Chris Penk—five minutes.

Thank you, sir, for the opportunity to speak in the second half of the split call—a game of two halves, so to speak—which I share with my colleague across the House, Jan Tinetti. Like many across this House, I’m pleased to say that I support this bill, of course, as a member of the National Party, which is supporting this Government bill in this space, which is essentially one of customs but also does involve other elements, as we shall come to.

I propose to make my remarks in a way that befits the nature of a third reading speech, which is essentially to summarise some of the key elements in the hope that by reading into the record my thoughts on this, we’ll have a handy summary in a five-minute form—if anyone should be interested in that in the future, then they might pick my contribution above those of some of my colleagues.

So with no further ado, I will launch into my summary, which will take the form of, first, talking about why; second, what; third, when; fourth, where—you’ll probably see where these are going—and, finally, my fifth and final point would be how, so talking about the way that the bill achieves its various aims.

💬 Jamie Strange: It sounds like an essay.

So first the why. I note that across the House, a former teacher remarks that it sounds like an essay. Well, I hope I can achieve something near full marks. Speaking as to the why—well, the reason that we have had this bill come to our House really exists on a couple of different levels. The first is that, as stated in the introduction, it is to incorporate into domestic law a couple of international instruments, namely the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, known to all its friends as UNCLOS, and also the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. So on one level, that’s the purpose of the bill: to bring into domestic law and to ratify those treaties. But on another level it is, of course, to recognise and deal with the harm that drugs do on our shores and to take steps beyond our shores to prevent the further incursion of those.

My second point is what. So what the bill does is to make a number of changes to existing law. In that sense, it is an amendment bill; it will be an amendment Act. The word “Extension” is used, because, of course, it is existing powers that are being extended, but it’s also worth noting that there are a couple of different current Acts of Parliament that will be amended in that way, namely the Customs and Excise Act 2018 and the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975.

Moving now to when—briefly, then, on the commencement date. I note that it’s unusual for such a short commencement date, certainly, by way of a particular calendar date being specified—1 October 2018 is not so very far away. At the committee stage of the passage of this bill I asked the Minister in the chair to comment on why it was such a short period of time. He gave a very good answer in relation to other legislative and regulatory requirements being aligned. I can’t improve on that answer; I don’t intend to do so, so we’ll move on forth from the when to the subject of where.

Obviously, in the maritime environment, as the name of the bill implies—and so just to pause and reflect by way of a footnote, that means, of course, not only the Customs Service but also the New Zealand Defence Force, including our navy. And I note the presence, again, of the Minister of Defence, appropriately enough, and also the Ministry for Primary Industries, as my colleague the chair of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, Simon O’Connor, has mentioned, perhaps among others as well.

So, having covered the where, and without needing to go into the more specific detail about the high seas, New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone, or the EEZ—seeing as I’m doing the abbreviation thing—but also the EEZ of other States, we move, finally, to the how. Well, that much is probably readily enough ascertained by anyone reading the bill, so I don’t intend to go into that in too much detail. But suffice it to say a few definitions are set out that are useful for understanding where exactly the bill applies; also, the establishment of offences, so that if the mechanisms of the bill are used, such that a drug smuggler—to use a non-defined term—is apprehended, then they can be dealt with accordingly in a New Zealand court; and, of course, providing the specific powers for our agents to do these things on the high sea on our behalf. So I commend the bill to the House, and look forward to its passage.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak in the third and final reading of the Maritime Powers Extension Bill. It’s great to see agreement from both sides of the House in a particular area where we want to see change, and that is the fact that we do not want illicit drugs coming into New Zealand, for the harm they cause to people in New Zealand, and to our communities, that we see in all of our own areas.

Methamphetamine, in particular, is a significant substance that we see coming in through New Zealand waters. And when we have a look at the amounts of methamphetamine that have been intercepted on those open waters, the amounts are really quite significant. The one that we’ve seen most recently is the 500 kilos that came in on the beach in Northland, but further out—further in those areas where we’re able to now reach, once this legislation has been passed—there are significant amounts. Off the coast of Australia, we’ve seen 200 kilos of methamphetamine intercepted; and 1.4 tonnes of methamphetamine in another interception in 2017. So this is where the real opportunity lies for the New Zealand Police and New Zealand Customs Service to work collaboratively with their partners in other countries to make sure we’re working together to get those big amounts before they even reach New Zealand’s shores. And that’s where the real benefit of working collaboratively lies. We can make sure that the harm that lies within those drugs doesn’t even reach our shores.

We have a real advantage in the fact that we are an island nation. We do not have the same situations as European countries, where trafficking drugs across borders is far easier. This legislation plays strongly to our strengths as an island nation to make sure we make our country as safe and as healthy as possible.

Noting that, I’d like to acknowledge those members that have already acknowledged the good work that needs to be done in terms of therapeutic treatments. So while it’s very important to control the supply of illicit substances, it’s just as important to control the demand—and that’s enabling anybody with addiction issues to be treating them as a health issue, and enabling them to access services, whether they be in prison, in the community, or any other part, and they should access them quickly when they ask for them. That is a priority of this coalition Government as well.

Without further ado, I would like to commend this bill to the House and thank all those for the work they’ve put into it.

Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker. Just before I start, I’d like to acknowledge the old MP for Clutha-Southland, Sir Bill English, who was knighted last night. It’s great to see Bill get knighted for his services to—

💬 Simon O’Connor: Sir Bill!

—sorry, Sir Bill—our country. He took over at a time in 2008 when we were in the middle of the global financial crisis, and then we had the Christchurch earthquakes. He will go down as one of the most courageous politicians of his time with his approach to social investment and to complex social needs. His social investment approach will truly go down as a great mark to him.

Can I also acknowledge the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, who this bill has gone to. I’d like to acknowledge the chair, sitting here to my left, Simon O’Connor. You’re doing a wonderful job, Simon. I was just going through the submissions to the select committee, and it’s a shame there were only, I believe, three submissions made. There were some very good points in those submissions, and I thank those submitters for taking the time and raising some very valid points.

I’d also like to acknowledge a previous customs Minister, the Hon Tim Macindoe, who was here earlier. I was a wee bit concerned: he was talking like he knew a lot about the drug-trafficking industry, and I’m sure he got that knowledge from—

💬 Chris Penk: Too much!

—his work—too much about the drug-trafficking industry! I’m sure he got that knowledge from his time as the customs Minister.

This bill, the Maritime Powers Extension Bill, is around the powers that customs and police can use to search vessels coming within New Zealand waters, but, more importantly, outside those New Zealand waters. So, currently, under the law, they can get outside the 12- to 24-mile zone, and then once they’re in international waters, the laws are a wee bit murky, a wee bit muddy. This bill seeks to clear those and also give police and customs more powers.

I just want to acknowledge the great work that those customs officers and police officers do for our country. It is a shame, at the moment, that between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. at Auckland Airport, the working dogs of the Ministry for Primary Industries have been taking a bit of a snooze, but it’s great to see the Minister is getting on to that.

The Customs Service is the oldest New Zealand public Government department, and even though they are the oldest, they are now one of the most tech-savvy. Technology has moved on greatly in the last five or 10 years, and it’s great to see the Customs Service using that technology. For example, you can walk down an international terminal now, and they have sensors which can, basically, sense whether or not you’re carrying drugs. It saves a huge amount of time. But the problem is that the attempts to smuggle drugs into New Zealand have been increasing over time.

You would have remembered, Mr Speaker, back in June 2016, there was some excellent work by the New Zealand Police and by the Customs Service. They intercepted a shipment of 450 kilograms of methamphetamine, and it’s very interesting to see how they did that. They, basically, intercepted the boat once it reached Ninety Mile Beach. It did go outside 20 miles to a mother ship; they transferred the drugs from the mother ship on to the boat and made it to shore. Two men were caught with 449 kilograms of methamphetamine in their caravan, and they found around about 50 kilograms buried at Ninety Mile Beach. If it wasn’t for the tremendous work and surveillance of the Customs Service, of the police, these offenders would not have been caught.

Similar to the World Trade Organization—the World Trade Organization was set up to give a sort of framework for countries trading with one another, and if there is a dispute with trade, there are clear guidelines and a framework that the Governments contesting the trade can refer to. So this bill here will beef up the search and surveillance rules and regulations for customs, which is needed, because you just need to look around to see the different damage that P is doing to the communities. On that, I commend the bill to the House.

Bill read a third time.