Customs and Excise (Arrival Information) Amendment Bill

I present a legislative statement on the Customs and Excise (Arrival Information) Amendment Bill.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.

I move, That the Customs and Excise (Arrival Information) Amendment Bill be now read a third time.

This bill amends the Customs and Excise Act 2018 to provide for clearer arrival information obligations to help with Customs-related border management matters. This includes things such as collection of revenue and detection of restricted or prohibited goods. This bill also aims to improve the collection of arrival information by introducing new offences to enforce the system. This bill will support the digitising of the paper passenger arrival card. The New Zealand traveller declaration is part of work towards a safer and smarter border using technology.

We already have a smart and safe border by international comparisons, but it’s important that we continually work to improve this. Moving to a digital system for collection of arrival information has a number of benefits, such as improving risk assessment at the border. It will allow quicker assessment of information against risk factors. It will also help cut down unnecessary referrals to border officers. When the digital arrival card is in place, only some people will be referred to a Customs officer if their digital arrival card identifies a potential risk or issue. This frees up the Customs officer to concentrate on those where a potential risk is identified and to look out for persons who might display suspicious behaviour. Those travellers who voluntarily complete their New Zealand traveller declaration prior to arrival will be able to experience a more streamlined process on arrival in Aotearoa.

This bill does not include specific stand-alone provisions relating to the sharing and protection of this information. This is because the bill links to the existing robust information-sharing framework and protections in the Customs and Excise Act. Also, the Privacy Act will apply on the arrival information requirement provisions in the bill. The bill also introduces two new offences to encourage compliance by travellers. Most travellers provide arrival information. I expect these offences will only apply to a small group who do not provide their information or do not provide it in the way or timing required, or provide false information. The two offences are: failing to provide the required information and providing information that is erroneous in a material particular. That second offence is not meant to capture minor accidental errors that have no harmful consequences.

Other changes include regulation-making powers to set the timing for when arrival information can be required and to exempt categories of travellers from providing arrival information. It also provides for Customs to verify information on behalf of other agencies, which is set out in other statutes. This bill does not add new requirements to provide arrival information. Travellers to Aotearoa are already required to complete an arrival card, which includes personal details and questions.

Section 56 of the Customs and Excise Act sets out the broad purposes for which Customs can collect arrival information such as border security. Customs needs information from a range of sources to undertake its role. The information provided through the digital arrival card is provided from the individual. The traveller states if they are carrying anything that needs to be declared and they provide information that is not provided to airlines, such as whether they are carrying any prohibited items in their baggage. The arrival information questions, particularly those on concessions and prohibited goods, provides an individual the opportunity to do the right thing and declare if they are carrying something prohibited or if a person has quantities over the duty free limit, such as tobacco or alcohol.

The bill was referred to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, which considered several public submissions on the bill. I would like to once again thank the committee for its valuable consideration of the bill, in particular the scrutiny of collection of personal information and information sharing. The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee recommended some amendments to the bill unanimously, which were incorporated into the bill following second reading. These changes allowed for the phased implementation of the arrival card obligations in the maritime space and made some minor enhancements to improve it.

To summarise: this bill clarifies arrival information requirements, improves the functionality of the system by providing for regulation making to set when arrival information is required and who is exempt from arrival information. The bill also improves the enforcement of those requirements. The amendments will ensure Customs can fulfil its important border management role and support the shift to digital collection of arrival information through the New Zealand traveller declaration. I commend this bill to the House.

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’d just like to congratulate the Minister of Customs, Jo Luxton, one of the finer Ministers in the Labour Government, I would imagine, and who has been, I must admit, a very good friend on the Primary Production Committee and somebody who it’s great to see as a Minister. Well done, and congratulations. It’s a good thing that you’re bringing this bill through the House. So, well done to Jo Luxton.

The National Party will be supporting this. This is a simple and necessary bill for travellers coming into New Zealand. I guess the only thing is to make sure that somebody that may not be technologically savvy, like myself, still has the ability to get back to New Zealand, if we wanted to, just in case we can’t operate our phone or whatever device properly. So there’s probably just—

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! Your daughter will do it for you!

Ha, ha! Thank you, thank you. Well actually, in saying that, she did buy a movie yesterday, at 10 months old, and it wasn’t a great movie, and now we have to watch it. But, yes, I’m sure she’ll be more help than I would at doing these things.

That’s probably the only real issue. You know, we can see that these things need to change with time and technology. When people come into the country, they probably wonder what that information is actually used for and whether it is collated properly and, if it is digitised, then it probably does have more reason to do it. All those arrival cards just didn’t make much sense as to what actually happened with them. They were cumbersome, and people would have wondered why they had to fill in something in writing and then not actually know what happened with it. So at least that data would be accessible and would be retained and could be of some benefit at some point. So the National Party supports this bill.

The only other thing I’d say is that our airports—especially Auckland—are terrible at the moment. Effectively, anybody coming in would think they’re coming into a Third World country, which, effectively, the economy is at the moment. But Auckland Airport really needs to be a lot more efficient. We don’t want to give up our biosecurity and our customs roles, but we need to have efficiency at airports for the traveller experience and also just for the nature of travel if we are a country that wants to be productive and encourage people to come and visit this country. So that would be one thing that—not quite on the bill, but, you know, is part of a package of someone coming into New Zealand. If it is digitised, if it is a bit easier—we don’t want them held up at the airport for three hours while there’s something else that’s happening there. That’s inefficient. National supports the bill, and we look forward to passing it.

Members, the time has come for me to leave the Chair for the dinner break. The House will resume at 7 p.m.

Sitting suspended from 5.58 p.m. to 7 p.m.