Wagner Nicky: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWagner Nicky: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5381. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NICKY WAGNER (Minister of Customs): E te Tiamana tēnā koe. As Minister of Customs Te Mana Arai o Aotearoa it is my pleasure to update the House on the excellent work of the New Zealand Customs Service and our Budget initiatives. It is an enormous privilege to be the Minister of Customs because it is the oldest New Zealand service. It is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year because the first customs house was established in Russell weeks before the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. I like to say that customs is 175 years young because even though it is a traditional organisation and it has loyalty and commitment it is innovative and forward-thinking and it delivers cutting-edge services and technology. So it is great to see that you can teach an old dog new tricks.Customs has four major roles. The first is protecting the border the second is managing travellers as they cross that border the third is managing imports and exports and the fourth is collecting revenue. Over that 175 years the demands at the borders have changed but they are always challenging because customs’ job is to keep New Zealand and New Zealanders safe. We do that by managing risk and making border access as quick as easy and as cost-effective as possible for legitimate travellers and goods but as complicated as difficult as time-consuming and as expensive as possible for illegal or dangerous people or goods. The New Zealand Customs Service does this very well. The World Economic Forum rates New Zealand as fourth in the world for facilitating trade across the border and sixth in the world for its actual border processing. That is pretty amazing considering the emphasis we have on biosecurity and the fact that other countries do not do that at all.Last year 10.4 million travellers crossed our border and those numbers are increasing every year. They are increasing in number and in diversity. We have more non-English speaking travellers and we have different cultures and that increases the complexity at the border. SmartGate allows us to manage that risk. Just this week I announced 29 new SmartGates. These are SmartGates on steroids. These are SmartGates that are brand new technology with a one-step process. No more ticketing booths. No more two queues. It has faster processing and better-quality biometrics. That is a fantastic upgrade for New Zealand.We are also delivering for importers and exporters of goods. The Joint Border Management System and the Trade Single Window are world-leading technologies. They are transforming border processes and streamlining systems. Recently I visited the US and talking to customs officials and business people there they were absolutely impressed that New Zealand had this technology—and jealous because they do not have it yet. Customs manages about 11 million import and export transactions and 99 percent of those are managed within 30 minutes. We are also actively supporting exporters. Whenever the Government negotiates any trade agreements customs is involved in order to manage the border processes. In Budget 2015 $6.2 million has been allocated over 4 years to support small businesses so that they can access international markets and reduce the risk of trade disruption.We are constantly challenged at the border by people who want to bring illegal or dangerous things into New Zealand by smuggling drugs offensive weapons and child pornography. So we need to be vigilant and we need to be one step ahead and we do that by working in partnership with the New Zealand Police and with international agencies. In the last 6 months we have stopped half a tonne of methamphetamine at our border. That is a street value of $246 million. We know that we are holding our own against the drug rings and organised crime because the price of methamphetamine has remained the same since 2011 so we have control.We also collect revenue for the Crown. We collect about $12 billion every year.