Whaitiri MekaHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Minister of Customs): Madam Chair thank you very much for the opportunity to take a call in support of the Appropriation (2016/17 Confirmation and Validation) Bill as the proud Minister of Customs. Customs comes within the ambit of this particular theme. I just want to acknowledge the work of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee. It's very few reports that come back to the House where a select committee like the one in question starts the report with saying Our congratulations to Customs for its work. We would like to congratulate Customs for its work at the border to protect New Zealanders in particular its work to intercept and disrupt the supply of illicit drugs." I've been the Minister of Customs for not quite six months. So I do want to acknowledge the former Ministers the Hon Tim Macindoe and of course the Hon Nicky Wagner who were also really key in the work that customs does. Can I just acknowledge and talk briefly in terms of the annual review on three areas and one is obviously travel. So just to remind the House the three broad functions of customs are to protect New Zealand's borders to promote and facilitate secure and efficient trade and travel and of course to collect Crown revenue. In terms of collecting revenue it might be of interest to members of the House that customs collects around 18 percent—18 percent—of the core Crown tax revenue annually. That's approximately $13.2 billion that customs collects on behalf of the Government. It's not a light fee but it's important to acknowledge customs' role and I think they do an absolutely good job in that respect. I also want to touch on the success of some recent initiatives particularly around the use of SmartGates and to acknowledge that our visitor rates to this country have increased by approximately 9.3 percent on the previous year. That equates to approximately 13.27 million passengers that have come through our gates in the year that's under review—like I said an increase of 9.3 percent. Of those 13 million approximately 5.8 million use the SmartGates. The SmartGates—many of those that travel in and out of New Zealand will recall that if you've got an electronic passport it facilitates both your entry to and exit from the country in a lot more seamless way. So 6 million passengers use the SmartGates and just so members know the recent additions in the year under question include passengers from China France Germany the Netherlands and Ireland who have taken up the opportunity if they've got e-passports to use that particular facility. But it's the protecting of New Zealand borders—the interception of illicit drugs at the border—that I do want to turn the House's attention to to acknowledge the work that customs do in obviously keeping our borders safe. Recently and last year particularly—2017—approximately $1 billion was captured at the border that we believed would have led to harm. It's important that we acknowledge that by preventing the movement of drugs across our border it's not then ending up going into our social services' laps in terms of dealing with it. However the point I want to make here is having international officers in the countries from where we know that drugs are coming in is really critical to the border security system. I do a nod to the Minister of Finance that we have to ensure that the services at those borders internationally are really critical if we're going to maintain that record. Having said that I know customs is also very instrumental in some of the tariff work that's going on in terms of potential trade partners. Again that is something that we need to make sure that we're improving and that we are resourcing them appropriately. In the time I've got left I want to acknowledge the modernisation of the Customs and Excise Act that this House recently passed. It's an acknowledgment of several years of hard work not only by officials in customs but also by the stakeholders—the businesses that engage with customs—to ensure that we've got a modern Act that reflects the needs of businesses today going forward. I believe it's a tool that's going to be well received by stakeholders and businesses throughout New Zealand and of course our trading partners who realise that our Act to enable that is healthy and is modern. I commend this bill to the House."