Sio William: Border (Customs Excise and Tariff) Processing Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sio William: Border (Customs Excise and Tariff) Processing Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:8229. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SU’A WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Mangere) 
: 
 Labour supports the Border (Customs Excise and Tariff) Processing Bill for many reasons. One of the key reasons of course is that our people Rick Barker and the Hon Nanaia Mahuta have worked on this issue for some years. This bill clarifies and enhances the Customs and Excise Act in terms of law enforcement capability. Its provisions include enabling customs officers to stop and search a vehicle to use reasonable force to gain entry and to search a vehicle that is unattended or abandoned. The use of reasonable force is needed in order to open a vehicle if it is locked or unattended. Otherwise customs officers cannot search the vehicle without a court order and in the time it takes to obtain a court order the prohibited goods could have been disposed of and the people responsible for the vehicle could be gone. 
This bill is important particularly for communities that have a serious concern about illegal drugs and P coming through our borders. The bill also allows customs officers to arrest any person committing an offence under the Customs and Excise Act whether or not that person is on a craft. These provisions simply streamline enforcement processes by the Customs Service and aid efficient law-enforcement procedures. 
The bill also creates a new offence of making a false allegation or a false report to the Customs Service. If anyone does so he or she commits an offence and can be prosecuted. The bill allows customs officers to use future technologies to detect tampering with containers or interference with goods and packages. Using future technologies is seen as being more effective than the currently utilised customs seal. That is especially pertinent now as I have been made aware that the United States is making rapid advances in the use of technology for its trade security. 
There are however a couple of things that I seek clarity on from the Minister of Customs. The first is that the bill gives customs officers the power to arrest not only when reasonable cause to suspect has arisen but for a period of 7 days after the offence. That raises the question of why the period is limited to 7 days. What happens if the offender immediately goes to ground and is not located for another 3 months? Do police and customs officers stop searching for the offender after the 1-week period has expired? We want some clarity on that. 
The other point I want to make concerns new section 274A inserted by clause 22. It allows the chief executive to arrange for the use of automated electronic systems for any purposes that he or she sees fit in exercising a power. Labour asks where the checks and balances in this process are. Although Labour members have the deepest respect for our customs and border control officials we do not believe that it is a good thing to have a chief executive with unfettered power. We would expect checks and balances in that regard. 
As I said before Labour members support the bill. We will be supporting the amendments. In the third reading debate we will emphasise our concerns about the issues around P and other drugs. My colleague the Hon Chris Carter has also highlighted our concerns about ensuring that our borders are well-resourced. Despite having SmartGate—a tool that customs officials need—the job of the Customs Service is still labour-intensive. That is what I understand from what I have learnt about the service at the border. 
Cutting the budget of the Customs Service may send to criminals some signals that we do not want to be sending. The signals could say to them that we are putting our customs officials and border agencies under strain. It could mean that we are sending them the signal that they can compromise our borders. That is not what we want. I will leave it at that and give my colleagues the opportunity to speak.