12. Question No. 12—CustomsSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki) to the Minister of CustomsQuestion No. 12—Customs12. SIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki) to the Minister of Customs: What steps has she taken if any to ensure Customs staff are prepared for the increase of New Zealanders returning home? Hon JENNY SALESA (Minister of Customs): That's a really good question from the member and I can confirm that I have worked constantly with the Customs Service to ensure they have adequate resources in place which enables them to facilitate any increasing numbers of international passengers arriving at the border while continuing to perform their important border protection functions. I've also sought assurance that customs is continuing with its best-practice health and safety measures to ensure New Zealand customs staff are protected while working at the border. I believe the results speak for themselves. Since 3 February when the first border restriction measures were implemented 521381 people have returned from overseas to New Zealand. To date there has not been one single confirmed case of COVID-19 with any of our customs staff. However if any issues are brought to light they will be investigated and addressed immediately. Simon O'Connor: How can she share all of that with confidence when little under five days ago an Official Information Act response obtained from her office has revealed that staff in customs have undertaken absolutely no new training to prepare for these changes? Hon JENNY SALESA: What I can say is that from the very beginning we've had public health officials actually walk through and ensure that our customs staff know how to actually wear personal protective equipment (PPE). Customs maintains physical distancing and the use of masks and gloves is something that customs do. As I say the result speaks for itself. None of the customs staff have been tested as COVID-19 - positive; they have been tested though. There's also been high participation of customs officers for volunteering for testing. One of the things that customs has done is it's redeployed a lot of its staff to ensure that they also help out with contact tracing. As I say the result of customs not having had any COVID-19 cases is one thing that we can look to in terms of their adherence with PPE and with health and safety measures. Simon O'Connor: Does the Minister not appreciate that training of customs staff is not simply for their health and safety but for the health and safety of the thousands coming through our border and the 5 million New Zealanders here already? Hon JENNY SALESA: I absolutely appreciate that for customs staff one of their first and foremost tasks is to ensure that the borders are secure. They actually have done that. In terms of how they—customs staff—work at the moment as soon as international passengers get off the international planes they are escorted by customs staff and police right through now to eight places where there are health officials. Now health officials ask all of these detailed questions for all of the symptoms and if there are any folks as they come through that exhibit symptoms they are then referred to public health nurses. There is actually a really rigorous process at the international airport and then what happens is there are two places. So for those that actually have any symptoms they go through one place where they do not mix with other passengers and then they go out a different door straight to a shuttle and straight to quarantine. I say this because I myself as the Minister of Customs visited—SPEAKER: Order! Order! I'm getting cries of Enough" from my left so I think we'll leave it there."