Barker Rick: Border Security Bill — First Reading 
Barker Rick: Border Security Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:609;Page:6823] 
Hon RICK BARKER (Minister of Customs) 
: I move  
That the Border Security Bill be now read a first time.  
At the appropriate time I intend to move that this bill be referred to the Government Administration Committee for consideration. To consider this bill one has to go back to a long day 21 months ago. We in New Zealand woke to the news of September 11 2001 seeing images of hijacked passenger planes crashing into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York the Pentagon and into a field in Pennsylvania. More than 3000 people lost their lives. On that tumultuous day we all knew that something fundamental had changed in our world. We knew there would be fall-out from these acts of terrorism. We did not know the nature or shape of this changed new world but we knew we would come to understand it. 
The recent bombings in Bali also brought terrorism home to our region. Terrorism is no longer remote; it is in our neighbourhood. Within the last month we have seen renewed terrorist activity in Saudi Arabia and Morocco both linked to international terrorist organisations. Here in New Zealand we cannot continue to believe that the world’s largest moat will protect us nor can we ignore our responsibilities as good international citizens. We too must respond to this changing world to ensure our own safety to ensure the safety of our fellow citizens around the world and to ensure the continued flow of trade—the future of our economy depends on it. 
 That brings me to the detail of the Border Security Bill which will enhance our border security against terrorism. This bill sits alongside the Counter-Terrorism Bill in strengthening the legislation protecting New Zealanders and New Zealand’s interests. The Counter-Terrorism Bill is already before a select committee. Since September 11 2001 international bodies have been advocating tighter border control measures and agreed standards. A key aspect of these standards is early and timely access to information for the purposes of managing the risk that people planes ships boats and goods may pose as a terrorist risk. Early access to information is critical. We are now focused on preventing risk and to do that we need to do our homework. That means we need good information in advance about people craft and goods that are heading our way. We need enough time to analyse this information and if need be determine an appropriate response. Currently this information is either not supplied or is supplied manually which does not allow for adequate checking in a timely manner. 
The Border Security Bill amends the Customs and Excise Act and the Immigration Act as they affect border security. In summary the changes will improve the security of global travel and trading environments enhance closer security relationships within the trade supply chain and travel network strengthen the gathering of and sharing of intelligence and ensure better use of information to assess risk. 
I will now detail how this new security enhancement will affect travellers. There are two elements to the travel information sharing provided for in this legislation. Firstly airlines and cruise ship operators will be required to use electronic means to submit passport details for passengers in-transit passengers and crews in advance of their arrival or departure from New Zealand. Many are already providing much of this information voluntarily. The full implementation of the legislation will mean that passport and visa details will be checked automatically against electronic records held by the New Zealand Immigration Service. Any matches will trigger an advisory back to the airline about whether a person should be allowed to embark for New Zealand. This form of data screening is the best way to reduce New Zealand’s exposure to risk from people travelling here while at the same time maintaining the high flows of arrivals into New Zealand at any one time. 
The number still staggers me—almost 1.9 million people visited New Zealand in 2001-02 and the number is still increasing. The vast majority of those people are genuine travellers who deserve a warm welcome and speedy processing. However we must be able to identify those who are not welcome. Waiting until those travellers actually arrive here to check them out is just not good enough. It is better to deal with the problem before it gets here. 
The second and equally important aspect of travel - information gathering analysis in this legislation is the provision for the Customs Service to electronically access the computerised passenger booking systems of travel operators and their agents. These provisions have been carefully developed to enable the New Zealand authorities to have access to information that gives us vital clues to identifying those persons who pose a risk without jeopardising the privacy of legitimate travellers. These measures will affect some 20 international airlines all cruise ship operators providing services into and out of New Zealand and other travel operators. 
This bill is not a bolt out of the blue for those it will affect as there has been considerable consultation. Airlines around the world are responding to similar legislation from other countries. Here in New Zealand Air New Zealand has led the voluntary compliance and all the airlines are now providing the information voluntarily. I want to put on record my appreciation to the airlines for their excellent cooperation in protecting New Zealand. 
I now refer to security as it affects cargo. It is vital to New Zealand’s economy to keep trade flowing smoothly and in the new international environment our trading partners expect New Zealand exports to be not only of high quality and on time but also safe from terrorist infiltration. Again information is key to achieving this. The legislation enables the Customs Service to electronically access the computerised cargo management systems of operators in the supply chain such as freight forwarders and consolidators. The bill also establishes a legislative environment for an innovative new partnership approach to providing assurance over export security. 
The Customs Service is developing a secure export partnership scheme whereby the Government and business work together to protect New Zealand’s interests. This will enable the Customs Service to assure trading partners that goods exported under the scheme are packed securely and with no other goods. The goods will then be placed without interference under a customs security seal and conveyed to a customs-controlled area for export. The intention is that the goods with the New Zealand Customs Service security seal will then be regarded by overseas customs administrations as low-risk therefore minimising inspection disruption or delay. Central to the scheme is the authority to allow an exporter to apply a customs-approved seal to that company’s shipping container. 
There is also a separate provision for an approved person such as a customs officer to apply a seal in circumstances where the goods have been packed under supervision or inspected by the officer. It will also show that when the cargo is sealed it is secure—that is the cargo contains only what is declared and secured in an approved way. It will also assist in identifying any interference or tampering with secured cargo. Goods shipped with these seals will be legally regarded as being under customs control therefore making it an offence to tamper with them. It would be up to individual exporters as to whether they participate in the secure exports partnership and I know that many would find it in their best interests to do so. 
There are other issues at risk for us as well. In this legislation the Customs Service is looking to have increased powers to detain people at remote locations. There have been a number of occasions when customs officers and others have come across situations in which these powers are appropriate and indeed highly desirable. New Zealand wants to be sure that the people entering New Zealand are doing so entirely legitimately. 
The bill also has provisions that will give the Customs Service the lawful right to detain and hold cash or other funds that would be crossing the border for what appears to be no immediate legitimate purpose. Criminals and terrorists need to fund their activities with money and we have adequate checks in the banking system but we have inadequate checks at this time about money coming across the border. Under this legislation customs officers will be able to detain people or the cash for a period of up to 12 hours or longer where it is warranted to ensure that there is no security risk. 
In conclusion I note that currently with the United States one of our major trading partners we have $4 billion of exports. For the United States it is now important for us to make sure that we meet its security requirements and that the US feels comfortable about those security requirements. The Customs Service is moving rapidly to meet those demands. It is worth noting that Auckland is our largest port with the US—it is No. 78 on its list—and we have many other smaller ports. So if we are to be able to ensure that trade flows easily from all our ports in New Zealand to the United States we need to have this legislation to ensure that we are able to give to the US customs service the sorts of guarantees and notices of comfort that it needs to enable our goods to travel across the border unimpeded. 
New Zealanders living overseas have come home to New Zealand in great numbers because they feel safe and secure in New Zealand and this legislation will help underline that secure feeling that New Zealanders have when they live here in this country.