Williamson Maurice: Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Williamson Maurice: Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:666;Page:14037] 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (Minister of Customs) 
: 
 I move  
That the Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be considered by the very good Justice and Electoral Committee that the committee report finally to the House on or before 9 December 2010 and that the committee have the authority to meet at any time when the House is sitting except during oral questions during an evening on a day in which there has been a sitting of the House and on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House despite Standing Orders 187 and 191(b) and (c). 
The bill is an omnibus bill that amends both the Customs and Excise Act 1996 and the Biosecurity Act 1993. The bill makes important improvements that are required to support the sharing of information across border sector agencies. These amendments will ensure that the Customs Service and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry meet the Government’s priorities in relation to the delivery of the joint border management system and support effective collaboration at the border. The bill also provides for improvements in the effectiveness of customs law enforcement. These amendments will restore the level of effectiveness to the administrative penalty and the petty offence schemes that was intended when the Customs and Excise Bill was passed way back in 1996. Finally the bill addresses emerging customs and border management issues and provides clarity to existing legislative provisions to improve administration of the Customs and Excise Act. 
Let me take members through the purpose of the bill. The bill contains three categories of amendments: first amendments to provide for planned information-sharing by the Customs Service with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and across a range of other border agencies; second amendments to enhance the effectiveness of customs law enforcement mechanisms; and thirdly nine smaller amendments to clarify provisions within the Customs and Excise Act. I will take the House through those three provisions. The identification and management of border risks requires information to be accessed and shared by border agencies. The Government has recently agreed to $70 million funding for a joint border management system that will provide the Customs Service and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry access to collaborated information needed to identify risks at our border. The joint border management system is due to be tendered and system development will begin in early 2011. 
The current statutory provisions for information sharing allows for information to be shared but only on a case by case basis. This is not sufficient any more to cover the quantity of information and the process for information sharing between the Customs Service and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. This bill contains amendments to the Customs and Excise Act and the Biosecurity Act that are necessary to support shared access to information by the Customs Service and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry under the new joint border management system. The amendments also provide a legal framework to support the interim information-sharing projects between the Customs Service and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry until the joint border management system is fully established. Further customs involves a number of centres that operate jointly with staff from different agencies across the whole gamut from the Customs Service the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry immigration police defence and other agencies. These centres provide a mechanism for sharing staff and intelligence to ensure that risks are identified and effectively managed. 
The existing statutory provisions relating to such information sharing are of course unnecessarily complex. Given the Customs Service’s range of agency interrelationships and connections amendments in the bill establish an information-sharing framework that will enable the service to manage access to and sharing of border information by relevant agencies. The service’s assessment of risk relies heavily on the quality and accuracy of the information provided by importers. The administrative penalty scheme that operates under the Customs and Excise Act is no longer providing a sufficient incentive for compliance by the importing community. The existing provisions relating to the petty offences regime are very limited in their scope and reflect the circumstances that applied when that Act was originally passed back in 1996. The Customs Service has identified amendments to restore the level of effectiveness intended when these schemes commence. 
The second set of amendments will strengthen the administration penalty regime which will increase the minimum penalties to be applied as administrative penalties. The bill will also increase the maximum penalties that can be dealt with as administrative penalties adapting the penalty regime to reflect the degree of culpability—because that is an important aspect to this—and to include in the estimation of revenue avoided the GST otherwise payable. Amendments will also extend the range of provisions that can be dealt with as minor offences under the petty offences regime. The bill also includes nine amendments that are required either to clarify existing provisions or address new situations that have emerged since the Act was passed in 1996. The amendments clarify licensing and excise liability requirements for biofuels and biofuel blends and reduce compliance costs for low-volume producers. 
The bill allows the use of reasonable force within certain customs-controlled areas to detain people or compel unauthorised persons to leave. It enables the Customs Service to prevent goods from entering New Zealand that have been designed manufactured or adapted to facilitate a crime of dishonesty—for example eftpos card skimming machines that clearly were being brought in for a crime of dishonesty. The Customs Service was unable to stop that from happening. It creates—and this is my personal favourite—a specific offence for injuring or killing a customs dog and brings it into line with police dog treatment. It enables goods that must be imported in multiple shipments to be managed as if they were a single shipment. It allows for the making of regulations to define the point at which an export entry is deemed to be made. It defines when a postal article has been produced or delivered to a customs officer. It provides a specific method for calculating the value of temporarily imported goods at the time of exportation. 
The bill enhances customs law enforcement which is essential to ensure that the Government can prevent the importing of drugs and precursors and other illegal activity at the border and it contributes to the prosperity of our entire country. I commend the Customs and Excise (Joint Border Management Information Sharing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill to the House.