Customs and Excise (Arrival Information) Amendment Bill

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a pleasure to take a call on the Customs and Excise (Arrival Information) Amendment Bill, third reading.

This bill is a very simple bill. It just amends the Customs and Excise Act 2018, and in doing so it provides for clearer arrival information obligations and improves the enforcement and functionality of the system. The bill will enhance border management and the passenger experience by supporting a safer and smarter border. We live in a digitalised world, and we have to update our system accordingly.

Why we support this bill is simple. It’s necessary to support the implementation of digital arrival cards. While the digital arrival card can be implemented under the existing legislation, the bill only improves how the arrival information system works. And that is where there are a lot of changes to the time when information can be provided, and it provides for officers to enforce the system.

We had a few submitters—about five of them. There’s a few different views from the submitters. Some obviously agreed that we need to digitalise our systems; some expressed their concern. None the less, the vast majority were in favour of the bill.

I’d like to commend the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, who worked collegially on this bill. As a committee, we collectively examined the bill and recommended that the bill be passed with amendments unanimously. And while a simple bill, it does make a difference, and it’s a good bill. I commend it to the House.

Can I start by agreeing—that I think the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, which considered this bill, is exceptionally good. The chair—I don’t know exactly how to articulate it, but she’s great, she does an excellent job, and has moved this piece of legislation through very positively in the House. So, Madam Speaker, if you get the opportunity, please pass on my thanks to her—I’m sure she will appreciate it.

💬 Hon Members: Aw!

Does that get me an extra five minutes? No, I’m only kidding.

Look, National continues to be very pleased to support this Customs and Excise (Arrival Information) Amendment Bill, as we now move into its third and final reading. As I did at the committee stage, I want to acknowledge the new Minister of Customs, Jo Luxton, who is in this role and has picked it up at a very, very late stage. Fortunately for her, I would say—and not a reflection on her, but fortunately as a new Minister—it’s a bill that is relatively without controversy.

Look, seeing we’re in the third reading, I’ll traverse a few of the aspects, to make sure it’s well recorded and for those at home to understand what this is all about. Fundamentally, we’re moving away from those little, DLE-size blue arrival cards that we are all familiar with, on to a digital asset. So for New Zealanders and others visiting New Zealand—actually, sorry, I’d better back that up: a New Zealander can’t, strictly, visit New Zealand. So for New Zealanders returning home, and others within the Realm, and for those visiting, they are now, from late June, going to use an online system. For many Kiwis, they’ll be somewhat familiar with the system, if, like me, you had to use the New Zealand traveller declaration. It’s going to be a similar system. Can I stress the word “similar”—it’s not a health declaration. It’s, in effect, the same questions that we are familiar with when we return to the country, and those questions are actually a mixture of Customs and Ministry for Primary Industry questions that are put to us.

It’s going to a digital format. This is a prudent way forward, which is one of the reasons this side of the House supports it. We are becoming a much more technologically driven country, and, for me, personally, I’m hopeful that because this information will be swiftly available—obviously, Customs and our other agencies will be able to use and deploy it. But it’ll also be of use—and we had the likes of the tourism industry come in and speak to us to say they would really appreciate being able to get quick access to that arrival data; it assists with their planning. I should again put for the record: the systems in place with Customs are already pretty good, if not excellent, actually. As the shadow Minister of Customs, I have to say they’re a remarkable agency. As many in this House know, they do an exceptionally good job. And so these aspects are tinkering, if you will, or are subtle changes around the edges. They already share information very strongly and positively with the likes of the tourism industry—at a high level; better be clear to the House and others. They’re not sharing particular and personal data. It’s high-level data. But if this is now coming through a digital means, that’s a positive.

As I say, it’s now going to a digital format. One of the elements that exercised quite a bit of time within the select committee was the question of whether there would be new questions. For those who have taken the time—as I am sure everyone in this House, as I look around, has studiously studied the bill; it’s only four pages—

💬 Hon Michael Woodhouse: Twice.

Twice, says one of my colleagues here: the Hon Michael Woodhouse. Long and short, the legislation does not—repeat: does not—prescribe the questions which should be on the arrival card. And the committee was a little concerned about that, primarily because we did not want to see a host of new questions appear that some of us would feel were intrusive or frivolous or unnecessary. Why I’m sharing this is I think it’s really important to put on the Hansard, as we were given very good and clear advice that the existing Customs and Excise Act makes it very, very clear the scope of what the chief executive or the Comptroller of Customs can put within the arrival card—and that applies to other agencies as well. It was therefore thought that it’s better to empower, as this piece of legislation does, the chief executive or the Comptroller of Customs to prescribe those questions by regulation. There’s always a chance—well, there’s not always a chance. There will be a chance in the future that we have to update those questions, and it’s better done by regulation rather than literally another amendment bill has to be created and we have to come back into this House and go through a first, second, third reading—obviously, a committee stage and select committee as well. So it’s prudent to leave that to the comptroller or to the chief executive of Customs.

The other element which exercised us a little bit was around data security, and particularly around the sharing of information. We were given very good and strong assurances that there are already positive, if you will, memorandums of understanding between the likes of Customs and the Ministry of Social Development, our intelligence agencies, Police, and others, to make sure that that data is appropriately used. And, really importantly for those at home, this bill does not change any of that. It doesn’t change any of that, whatsoever.

It’s not so much a question; it’s an encouragement to the Government, that, again, while we support this to make sure the support systems are in place—we’ll all know, possibly in our own families, those who are not particularly tech savvy; they will find it a challenge to log on to any system and do this digitally—to make sure there are systems in place to assist those people at the border whether it is through an online system or whether they still have access to paper. It’s my understanding, from a comment from the Minister, I think in the second reading but perhaps in the committee stage as well, that a paper option will still be available. But, as I say, it’s not just about the systems; it’s making sure we have people in place.

I just want to end with a couple of last thoughts, if I might. One is around the maritime vector. It’s something which the chair of the select committee in foreign affairs has heard me speak about before, perhaps. We are really, really good at policing, for want of a better word—despite we’re talking about Customs—policing the airport vector of people arriving. We are not, in my opinion, as good or as strong or as consistent as we could be within the maritime vector. I’m not talking about defence forces. I’m aware that there’s a delay of a few months via this bill for them to implement the system. I’m talking about the cruise ships, and so forth. Personally, I think we just need to tighten up a little bit there, to make sure that those arriving into New Zealand via the likes of cruise ships go through the same or very close to the same rigour which we have at our airports.

And the second thing is—and I mentioned earlier about changing the questions. One—it’s only a suggestion. I’m big into modern slavery—or, sorry, I’d better rescind. I’m not into modern slavery; I’m against being, you know, a modern slaver. Let’s be really clear about this. This is the problem with our nomenclature in this Parliament. I would love to see a more robust approach in our questioning, to ensure that we’re capturing elements of modern slavery. And also—and it’s a very particular issue, but it might be surprising to some people both in this House but certainly at home—around forced organ transplantations, which, sadly, happen around the world. And New Zealand is a bit of a laggard in this space. We are not asking the appropriate questions to flush these behaviours and actions out. And so it’s just an example of how we may change, through Order in Council or regulation, our questions coming into the country. It’s a much longer and wider debate, but those of us from across the House who are interested in human rights see there are issues around organ transplantation. We see issues around modern slavery. And as with an event last night, we see issues around our Magnitsky sanctions. All three of them are areas we do not—again, do not—have adequately in this country.

So an encouragement with this new bill, which I am confident will pass tonight, that not only we set these systems well into place but we apply them appropriately, not only to protect the Realm but also to make sure that New Zealand continues to enhance its human rights framework. And with that, I commend the bill to the House.

Kia ora, Madam Speaker. It’s my pleasure to take a call on the Customs and Excise (Arrival Information) Amendment Bill. This bill amends the Customs and Excise Act 2018 to improve and modernise the processes at our border. The bill provides an explicit obligation on arriving passengers to provide prescribed arrival information and creates new regulation-making powers to set the time by which our arrival information must be provided to Customs. The bill also creates new offences for failing to provide described arrival information and for providing false arrival information.

These new changes mean that the bill allows the creation of a digital arrival card that will make arrivals more efficient and easier to handle. The digital arrival card will make arrival to New Zealand a better experience, for those of us that have travelled recently and for visitors, and free up border officers from unnecessary referrals and allow them to concentrate on identified risks.

Also, I’d like to thank my colleagues in the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee for their work on this bill, because the select committee has only had to make minor changes to make sure that the bill works effectively and provides extra time for the Defence Force and cruise ships to adapt to the new regulations. The committee also made sure that the bill was held to the highest standards on privacy and data collection, as the previous member mentioned, and consultation with the Privacy Commissioner has shown that this change would not expand the range of personal information that the visitors provide beyond what is already provided for in the Customs and Excise Act. So it’s a good bill, and I commend it to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise to take a short call on the third reading of this bill, and there isn’t a great deal to add. Customs obviously do an incredibly important job protecting our border, and this bill enables the enforcement of border regulations to work much more efficiently, we hope, by digitising the arrival declaration. And whilst sophisticated systems exist throughout a traveller’s journey, with all sorts of things updated, this is one area that’s remained rather old school. The benefits have been well canvassed, ranging from improved risk management to faster assessments of travellers, we hope, and ideally fewer people being referred to border officials.

I appreciate that the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee has looked into a few issues I raised in the first reading, and I believe they have adequately addressed them. A few questions remain outstanding following the committee of the whole House stage, but they are relatively minor and not a problem for our ongoing support. I do appreciate the nature of the roll-out, the fall-back—having the paper cards still available and remaining in place—and the way that this has been trialled to do so. Concerns I raised around changing circumstances, in previous readings and the committee stage, have been, I think, mostly addressed, and I thank the Minister for that. I do agree that having a more agile system in place here makes perfectly good sense, though I do hope it doesn’t open the door to a river of constantly changing regulations that could become very confusing for travellers, so I’ll just note that.

While an early declaration may present some challenges, in theory, with circumstances changing as I just mentioned, I think the benefits outweigh this, especially as an early declaration allows for better education—they get presented with it, what people can and cannot bring in, and how much and so on—and I think this will result in fewer mistakes and, hopefully, not too many offences, which have obviously been introduced by this legislation.

So, in summary, that’s all we really need to say on this bill. The modernisation enabled is probably very well overdue, and I commend it to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of the Greens to support this third reading of the Customs and Excise (Arrival Information) Amendment Bill. This bill aims to improve customer-related border management by introducing clear arrival information obligations and digitising the New Zealand Passenger Arrival Card—something that we support; it’s 2023, so moving things to a digitised platform completely makes sense.

I want to acknowledge the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee for moving this through the select committee but also engaging in some of those concerns—valid concerns—that people have around data protection and privacy. And I note the discussions that happened during the committee of the whole House and, actually, during this first and second reading as well, where members sought assurance that the bill would not compromise existing memorandums of understanding between, like, Customs and other agencies, between Inland Revenue and the Ministry of Social Development—so not getting in the way of that but finding a way to use all the advantages that you get from a digitised system as well. And also noting some of the concerns around—and the rationale, after hearing it from various members from around the House—the rationale for enabling a CEO to set those regulations; that if there does need to be a different set of questions that need to be canvassed within the digitised arrival card, they are empowered to do that, and also to acknowledge that members want to have better clarifications around that, which is totally appropriate.

I think about this in terms of the last three years as we moved through COVID and how—coming through the border—we needed to have a system that actually was a lot more agile and a lot more flexible, so, sort of, making sure that we have the systems in place if, God forbid, something else happens, so that we can have that flexibility that you don’t actually get with a paper system as well. But also acknowledging that some of our whānau aren’t the most tech savvy, and so having that paper option is also about ensuring that there is that accessibility as well. And also noting—because I live in a rural community out in the provinces—that sometimes the power goes out, so having the paper option can be quite helpful. Hopefully, that never happens at the border with our airports, and so on and so forth.

So that’s all I have. I don’t have more to add to this bill.

💬 Simon O’Connor: Keep going!

You want me to keep going?

💬 Hon Gerry Brownlee: No!

Nah, he doesn’t. He doesn’t want me to keep going, because he’s had enough. So the Greens support this bill.

One of the reasons I haven’t heard for replacing the paper cards with digital arrival cards is people like me with really bad eyesight—those cards are tiny and there’s tiny little spaces—and then really, really bad handwriting. I’m sure there’ll be a lot of Customs officers out there who not only will be freed up to manage risk but will actually heave a sigh of relief that they’re not wading their way through all these illegible paper cards. But I have to say, like the previous speaker, Teanau Tuiono, I really welcome the fact that paper cards will be available for those who, for whatever reason, will never be able to move into the digital space. And so I think that’s a really good part of the system.

As far as what this is intended to do, many other speakers have already said. I just want to focus really on the clearer obligations that this bill makes around when the information is provided and the way it’s provided. And I note that because it’s a strict liability offence, there are really good defences in the bill, particularly in clause 6 around providing erroneous material, if it’s just putting a slight number wrong, something that is not intentionally material and doesn’t have a material effect that that will serve as a good defence. So that’s heartening too when it comes to natural justice.

So, as other speakers have said, it will make the border safer and smarter. It’s clarifying our obligations at the border, it’s making enforcement and functionality better, but, most of all, in my view, it’s going to make life much better for Customs officers who don’t have to deal with bad handwriting and those tiny little cards that are quite difficult to fill out. I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Look, this is a sensible bill for the time that we live in, but it does have the potential for a little bit of disruption on the way through, and I think it’s good to hear that others in the House have expressed a concern that those who perhaps don’t have access to the digital platform will still be able to use the paper system, at least for a time, because we do give the comptroller the opportunity to actually end that in this bill, as well. I think, in that regard, because there is a lot of authority confirmed for the Comptroller of Customs, there is a need to make sure that this House does express its desire for this to be a successful implementation of a 2023 experience that people should be able to have. But there are circumstances where people won’t, and so that should be covered off.

The other thing that is a little unclear is the time lines that might be involved and the circumstances that would arise if someone, for example, comes through duty free and inadvertently buys a little bit more than their allowance. How is all that going to be handled? How is it worked out? And I think the other thing is—Madam Speaker, you would know, and most in this House would know—that sometimes we find ourselves in jurisdictions where it’s not advisable to switch on your electronic device. So what would happen in that circumstance? Will there be facility on aeroplanes, etc., to be able to access those declarations and make them?

I think the point that Ingrid Leary made is a good one: that a lot of the information that is on these cards is often scruffily put down and very much a challenge to work out exactly what’s said. I suspect that most of those cards never get entered into the system. If there is someone there who’s taking each of the arrival cards and punching in what’s there, it hasn’t been evident in discussions with Customs and with the Ministry for Primary Industries to this point. So this is obviously going to give the system a lot more information—a lot more accessible information—and, from that point of view, and given that we’re a country that does need to protect our borders, we’re not so much worried about someone turning up with an extra bottle of spirits or something, but we are definitely worried if they turn up with food items that might be contaminated and could have a very adverse effect on whole industries in this country.

So, with that, can I say it was an interesting exercise. Our committee, the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, is, of course, extremely well chaired, by a most competent chairperson, who, interestingly, survives with only minimal advice from her co-chair! But it’s always, I’d have to say, extremely valuable, and I appreciate the way she receives that. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a pleasure to take a call on the Customs and Excise (Arrival Information) Amendment Bill. I’m not privileged to sit on the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, although having heard the wonderful words about how enjoyable the committee is and how ably it’s chaired, I’m slightly jealous of my colleagues in the House.

This is an important piece of legislation. Our borders are significant and it’s important for the security of our country and also for our very dedicated Customs officials to be able to do their job properly. This relatively straightforward piece of legislation moves New Zealand forward to what many other countries do in relation to the collection of information at the border. I’ve travelled recently twice overseas after not travelling at all over a period of time due to COVID, and it became clear that most jurisdictions are moving towards this electronic collection of information. This is not merely to move with the times but also to allow the people who are assessing risk at the border to be able to do their job more competently, and I understand from reading the legislation that this will assist them to be able to more ably do their job.

It also creates two new offences, which, of course, are necessary in any regime to make sure that there’s compliance with that. I understand from reading the legislation that it’s unlikely that those will be necessary for the majority of the time, but obviously they’re needed for a new system and to ensure that we do have the compliance that we need for our borders. So, along with colleagues from around the House, I commend this bill to the House.

It’s a pleasure to take a call on this important bill tonight. It’s also a pleasure to speak after the Hon Gerry Brownlee, who is a well-respected member of this House, who knows this area well, and who has acknowledged the chair of the committee that considered this bill—the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee—as one of our finest committee chairs in our Parliament.

Now, can I speak to the importance of this bill for introducing a digital arrival card. That will make a significant impact for the workers of our Customs Service—those are workers who are really important to our economy. We’ve heard from members around this House about the importance of our biosecurity systems and the safety net that protects our exports and our primary production sector.

But those workers, they are South Aucklanders around the Auckland Airport; they are workers on the front lines of our airport; they are people who look out for our community; they are people who put themselves on the front lines of COVID during the global pandemic, protecting our borders; and they are the people who we stand in solidarity with every day around the Auckland Airport and, indeed, around the other international airports in the country, who my colleagues on the other side of the House are giving a shout-out to now in this late stage of the debate—in this late stage, because it is the Manurewa MP who has given a shout-out to her Manurewa workers and the workers of South Auckland.

It’s important to make sure that we are updating our technology so that our workers are doing the most efficient jobs that they can and that we are supporting them through these times when there are shortages at our airports. That workforce is under pressure, and everything we can do to support them is good work in my books.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I was just enjoying that little discussion there, but it’s my pleasure to rise and take a call on the Customs and Excise (Arrival Information) Amendment Bill, which will soon become law. This bill amends the Customs and Excise Act 2018 to provide clearer arrival information obligations, to improve the enforcement and functionality of the system, to improve border management and passenger experience by supporting a safer and smarter border, and to support modernising our border by making improvements to support the implementation of a digital arrival card. I trust that the focus will very much be on what those intentions are, noting that we want to ensure that those who come here and don’t have maybe as great an access to the digital tools that others might are still able to take advantage of what’s intended by this bill.

I also was pleased to hear South Auckland customs workers getting a call-out. Look, I’ve lived and worked in that region in the past myself, but I should say the border certainly doesn’t end there. We’re here in Wellington tonight, and I need to make a shout-out to those who are working here in Wellington. I need to make a shout-out to those in Christchurch who are doing the hard work, and in my home town of Queenstown—make a shout-out to all those workers who are doing that work to make sure that we protect our border and look after our economy.

I should just say that this is an arrival bill we have. I’m pleased to say we have been seeing a strong growth again in tourism. It’s certainly not back to anywhere near what it was, but it is coming back and that is very, very good to see. It’s very important for our country and our economy. At a time when we have a balance of payment deficit that is the highest in the developed world, it’s really important that we have this foreign exchange coming to the country, and it’s great to have those tourists coming from overseas to share our wonderful country and that we can share with them. Also, this bill is to make sure we protect that other part of our economy, the primary sector, which is so important, and that we make sure we don’t get any foreign organisms that could severely damage that sector. So this bill is a good one to address that and make sure we are protecting our border well in that respect.

I do have to make one light comment, and I hope it’s light, but this is an arrival bill; maybe it should also be a departure bill, because I picked up the bill from the from the Table tonight and I see the Hon Meka Whaitiri is still listed there on the bill—a Government bill in the name of the Hon Meka Whaitiri. So there’s, you know, a little bit of an oversight there maybe, but we all have these moments.

So, anyway—

💬 Hon Michael Woodhouse: The first bill passed by an independent MP!

First bill passed by an independent MP, as my colleague says. So there we are—there we are. There’s always a time for a first, and maybe tonight’s it.

But, look, in all seriousness, this is a good little bill. It’s well-intended. We want to make sure that we continue to have people moving smoothly through our border but also protecting that border, and, with that, I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. A pleasure to take a call on this Customs and Excise (Arrival Information) Amendment Bill, and let’s bring it back to the arrival part of the bill. So I would like to start with congratulating my friend the Hon Jo Luxton as the Minister of Customs on her new position, and she did a fabulous job, I thought, last night when she took the chair for the first time at the committee stage of this bill. It has been traversed extensively.

This is a good bill, necessary to support the implementation of a digital arrival card. It will support a safer and smarter border, and it’s good that we had reassurances given earlier on that paper versions of this arrival card will remain available. There was, in fact—talking about light moments—a bit of a funny moment just before the dinner break, when some concerns were expressed by Mr Bennett, stating that he may have some trouble filling out an electronic arrival card, and the Assistant Speaker Jacqui Dean suggested that his daughter could perhaps do it for him. Now, I understand Mr Bennett’s daughter is 10 months old, but apparently she is extremely talented and beautiful.

Now, in a previous life I would have been handing out these paper-based arrival cards, and often—I pick up on Mr Brownlee’s comment—there were issues with these cards. They were sometimes not loaded, sometimes they actually had the wrong languages on the card when they were needed in a different language, and I’m also sure that airlines are pleased that they no longer have to carry these in large amounts to hand them out.

Now, the other comment that was made by Ingrid Leary I thought was excellent because I recently had to fill out one of these arrival cards when I left my whānau in the Netherlands—a shout-out to my sister, who’s watching—and it is extremely difficult with the small print on the cards. So moving to digital cards and to a digital border deals with a lot of these issues.

It would be remiss of me to not commend the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee and its excellent chair for their work on getting this bill through the House. They made some amendments and some other minor changes that have been well traversed, so all that I need to do is commend this bill to the House. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, and I do want to assure the House that the correct Minister’s name will be printed on the final bill.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a third time.