Nash StuartHon STUART NASH (Minister of Police): Thank you very much Mr Chair. I'm going to talk about clauses 22 28 and 29. But before I do quite integral to my contribution is the word craft" and I'm going to just go through the definition of the word "craft" as per the bill. It "includes any aircraft ship or other machine or vessel used or capable of being used for the transportation of goods or persons by air or … water." So I'm going to talk about yachts coming into New Zealand—a lot of yachts. The reason I'm going to talk about this is this is something very dear to my heart and also to the Minister's heart. It is the way that drugs are getting in and out of our country these days.One of the methods is the stuff is being dropped in the Islands. The meth is dropped in the Islands picked up by yachts and brought across to New Zealand. It's very hard to detect. But some of these clauses—I have questions for the Minister and she might know some of the answers to these. So if I look at clause 22 it's titled "Craft that have arrived at place other than Customs place". So as we know all around New Zealand dotted around New Zealand are a whole lot of areas that haven't got a customs office. These are places with jetties that yachts can arrive at at any time. It states "(2) The same powers may be exercised and the same obligations apply under this Act … (a) … as if [a craft] arrived at a Customs place;" My first question—this is clause 22(2)—why is that wording "The same powers may be exercised"? I would have thought that the same powers "must" be exercised and the same obligations apply under this Act—as if the craft arrived at a Customs place. So I'm wondering under what circumstances would they not apply? Hence the word "may" versus "must".I'm going now to clause 22(3) and there's a bit of confusion here. It talks about "The person in charge of the craft—" i.e. the skipper in this example "(a) must … report to a Customs officer or to a constable;"—so this recognises that when there's not a customs office there could well be a police station which is often the case now in places around—but "… (b) must not without the consent of a Customs officer allow (i) any goods to be unloaded from the craft;". I'm not too sure how this might work. So they land at a place without a customs office. They find a police station. They go to the constable. But what it actually says here is they can't actually do anything without the direction of a customs officer. At what point do the roles and responsibilities of a constable transfer to a customs officer?That takes me to clause 28—they link in—and this is "Persons arriving in New Zealand to report to Customs officer or Police station". So again it goes to that theme where they've landed in New Zealand there's no Customs office and they go to a police station. What it says here is that except as otherwise provided in the Act they must immediately report to a customs officer or a police station. Then it says—so we're in clause 28(b)—"remain at the place where he or she reported to the Customs officer or at the Police station for any reasonable time that Customs requires to enable a Customs officer to carry out any function under this Act". I suppose my question is: what constitutes reasonable time?So if they're landing in Ruatōria or somewhere where there is no customs office they report to a police station as per the Act how long do they actually have to wait there before they can say "Well this is a reasonable amount of time. I can reasonably be expected to go back to my yacht because a customs officer has not arrived."? Is it a day; is it is two days? I would have thought a reasonable amount of time would be three or four hours or as long as it takes a customs officer to drive from the nearest office to that police station. That may be impractical if all the officers are engaged in other activities but I'm just curious to know if the officials or the Minister have an idea around what constitutes reasonable time.Again clause 29 here "Disembarkation" as well: it talks about "(3) Every person who has disembarked must unless otherwise directed by Customs—(a) proceed to a Customs-controlled area;" and they must remain there for what constitutes a reasonable time.Maybe I'm reading this wrong but there seems to be a little bit of inconsistency there. So when they arrive in New Zealand they can go to a police station. But when they embark they must talk to a customs officer or follow the directions of a customs officer. This is a genuine question: can a police officer a sworn officer take over the responsibilities of a customs officer when there is no customs officer able to discharge their duties under the Act? Because as we know New Zealand has a lot of coastline. The Minister and I have great concerns about the use of yachts bringing in contraband."