Little AndrewHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Justice): Thank you Mr Chairman Rurawhe. It's a pleasure to take a call on this very important committee stage of the Customs and Excise Bill. If I could just pick up where my learned friend Mr Huo had left off he was talking about the two-stage threshold test for the examination by customs officers of electronic devices. The bill provides for that power of search and examination but in order to exercise that power a customs officer first of all has to be satisfied or at least to have a reasonable suspicion that a person in possession of such a device—it would be a cellphone or a laptop or anything else that might be described as an e-device"—has been involved in criminal offending.That suspicion no doubt would be the subject of guidance both judicial and non-judicial—so somebody walking through the customs hall at Auckland Airport sporting a T-shirt that says "I support the Mafia" may well find themselves under suspicion as they surrender their bags for examination. Then when they place their cellphone and other devices before the customs officers if the customs officers have a sufficiently reasonable suspicion that the person is involved in criminal activity then the customs officer may then examine the device to ascertain whether there is evidential material of criminal activity on it. So they will look for various apps or messages that they can get access to.And it doesn't stop there of course. The power of the customs officer extends to requiring the person to assist the customs officer to get access to the device either through relaying or disclosing the password or any other thing that is required to break the encryption of the e-device. This provision alone highlights the significance of the customs function and the role of customs officers and sometimes I think we take for granted the functions of the Customs Service—the very important function that they play which is to protect the Crown's revenue and to ensure the safety and security of New Zealanders as people pass through our borders. I would say that the powers of customs officers are second only to the powers of the police in this regard which is why it's important that the legislation we have governing our Customs Service achieves the objectives that this legislation sets down for it which is that they are clearly laid out they are coherent they are clearly spelt out and they are defined in a very modern and 21st century way. That's what this bill seeks to do and indeed does.It is important in this day and age when this Parliament is granting powers to officials of the State that we make those powers very clear and when we are granting extensive powers to officers or officials of the State that we do so advisedly and carefully and cautiously. I think that the examination that this bill has been given in the early proceedings in the House to the point where it now provides for the powers that I and my colleagues have been talking about—I think it is in a very satisfactory state.There are many powers that customs officials have and that the Customs Service has. One of those is the power to require craft and vessels that are coming from overseas or coming from outside our territorial waters to land at ports in New Zealand to disclose passengers on the vessel the names of crew on the vessels and any cargo or goods that the craft or the vessel is carrying. So our Customs Service gets to know exactly what is crossing our borders and who is crossing our borders.The legislation in order to be effective also sets up various offences: a failure to provide information that is required or requested a failure for a vessel or craft to get the appropriate authorisation a failure for those required to assist the Customs Service to do so and a failure to answer questions posed by customs officials at the border to assist them in doing their job and to protect New Zealand and the safety of its people. So these powers are extensive. They are now cogently and carefully and coherently laid out in this bill."