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Customs Minister Nicky Wagner thanks Customs for their hard work this year keeping our borders safe.

“While most of us are enjoying our holidays, our frontline staff at Customs are facing their busiest time of the year. I wish to thank all Customs staff for their tremendous effort this year, particularly those who are protecting our border over the Christmas break,” Ms Wagner says.

“They’re dealing with rising volumes of border transactions, and ever increasing passenger volumes.

Customs Minister Nicky Wagner announced today that over 20 million people have used Customs’ eGates since their introduction in 2009.

“Each week approximately 105,000 passengers self-process when crossing our border and this number is expected to continue to grow with the increasing volume of visitors to New Zealand,” Ms Wagner says.

“Visitor arrivals to New Zealand are expected to grow 5.4 per cent a year, reaching 4.5 million visitors in 2022 from 3.1 million in 2015.

Customs Minister Nicky Wagner has today congratulated Customs’ five new detector dog teams at a graduation ceremony in Trentham.

“Customs received over $500,000 from Budget 2016 to boost the total number of detector dog teams across the country from 15 to 20, adding to its multi-layered enforcement at the border,” Ms Wagner says.  

“The five new teams are a welcome addition, especially as we head into the peak summer season when more people cross our border.”

Customs Minister Nicky Wagner has welcomed the First Reading of the Customs and Excise Bill in Parliament today.

“This is a Bill that is better for businesses. Not only will it be easier to use and understand, it makes businesses’ obligations clearer and provides more flexibility in meeting them,” Ms Wagner says.

“It will replace the out-dated 1996 Customs and Excise Act that is unable to respond to a changing border environment.”

Transnational criminal networks are targeting and recruiting people to act as drug couriers, by either duping or enticing them, and New Zealanders should be aware of the risks, says Customs Minister Nicky Wagner.

“Customs’ intelligence suggests older generations and the young and vulnerable are at risk are of being targeted by drug syndicates,” Ms Wagner says.

“This is not a new trend but we are aware of situations here and abroad that are of concern, and want to prevent New Zealanders from being preyed on.

The new Customs and Excise Bill will strengthen border management and make life simpler for businesses, says Customs Minister Nicky Wagner.

“The Bill will take the place of the out-dated Customs and Excise Act 1996, which is difficult to understand and apply, creating unnecessary compliance costs for business,” Ms Wagner says.

“Businesses’ obligations will be clearer and there will be more flexibility in meeting them in the new modern legislation.

New detector dog teams have completed their three-month training programme and begin working at the border from tomorrow, says Customs Minister Nicky Wagner.

“The four Labrador’s, Casey, Flo, Latte and Que and their handlers were put through their paces during their training using tasks and exercises that simulate the airport and cargo operational environments,” Ms Wagner says.

“Three teams will be based in Auckland and one in Christchurch.

The addition of 12 new eGates at Christchurch airport will improve international travellers’ airport experience says Customs Minister Nicky Wagner.

“Eight new eGates are being installed in Customs’ arrivals area and four in the departures area,” Ms Wagner says.

“We are replacing the six older SmartGates with the next generation eGates, and adding six more, to provide travellers with a faster one-step process that takes around 25 seconds.”

This week Customs is deploying 14 new FirstDefenders, a mobile substance identification device, to enhance its capabilities to protect the border says Customs Minister Nicky Wagner.

“FirstDefenders use a laser to analyse a substance, often without the need to open the packaging. It matches this against a database of over 11,000 illicit and legal substances to provide an accurate result within seconds,” Ms Wagner says.

The warmer weather signals the arrival of overseas yachts for the summer and Customs is geared up to welcome them says Customs Minister Nicky Wagner.

“The traditional small craft arrival season starts in mid-October and continues through to mid-December. Customs expects 420-440 arrivals during this time,” Ms Wagner says.

Customs Minister Nicky Wagner has met Customs five newest recruits in Auckland.

The Labradors were selected from Australian Border Force’s dog breeding and training facility in Melbourne in August and are three weeks into an extensive three-month training programme.

Overseas partner agencies have stopped illicit drugs with a harm cost of over $204 million from reaching New Zealand in the last financial year says Customs Minister Nicky Wagner.

“Drug smuggling is a global problem and Customs works closely with offshore partners to detect smuggling activity and intervene with drug supply chains early,” Ms Wagner says.

Customs is investing in a world-class patrol vessel to reinforce and enhance the protection of New Zealand’s maritime border, says Customs Minister Nicky Wagner.

“Customs has always had a strong maritime role that spans across its 176-year history. While the early days of chasing tobacco smugglers are long gone, maintaining its capabilities to respond to threats is as crucial as ever.

Customs is contributing to large drug seizures overseas through intelligence sharing and collaboration, says Customs Minister Nicky Wagner.

“Customs is part of a global enforcement network focussed on identifying and targeting drug smuggling and syndicates worldwide. Information shared with international partners has resulted in approximately 115kgs of cocaine being seized in Australia in the past year,” Ms Wagner says.

Customs Minister Nicky Wagner today announced eight new generation eGates have been installed at Wellington International Airport and are fully operational for arriving and departing passengers.

“Eight new eGates are available to New Zealand, Australian, US, UK, and Canadian ePassport holders arriving and departing in Wellington,” says Ms Wagner.

The Ministers of Police, Customs, and Internal Affairs have congratulated their departments for their efforts in fighting online child sexual abuse.

The Ministers say identification and rescue of victims, both within New Zealand and internationally, will continue to be a priority of their departments’ work. Police, Customs and Internal Affairs recently worked together to create a national database of images to assist in the assessment of child abuse material and victim identification. 

Improving the availability of quality information about New Zealand’s disabled community will lead to better decision-making by government agencies, Statistics Minister Craig Foss and Disability Issues Minister Nicky Wagner say.

The Ministers today opened consultation on the development of a Disability Plan to ensure government agencies have the data necessary to make informed, evidence-based policy decisions.

Customs Minister Nicky Wagner says Customs six-months drugs seizure statistics are tracking towards another record year, and show drug interception systems are working well.

“From January to June, Customs made 1634 seizures at the border of numerous types of class A, B and C drugs including almost 143 kilograms of methamphetamine, and 575 kilograms of its precursor ephedrine,” Ms Wagner says.

Budget 2016 is investing $19m over four years in modernising and transforming Customs’ workforce model, Customs Minister Nicky Wagner says.

“Air passenger volumes are forecast to increase by 21% between 2015 and 2020. Trade volumes are forecast to grow by 30% for the same period. We need to ensure that Customs is ready for this growth.”

Customs Minister Nicky Wagner congratulates 134 Customs officers nation-wide for their service to New Zealand and attended a medal and long service ceremony in Christchurch this morning.

“Collectively, the 139 receiving awards have served more than 3250 years’ to New Zealand. This vast experience and knowledge is crucial to ensuring that our borders remain well protected and safe,” Ms Wagner says.

Customs Minister Nicky Wagner says Customs is continuing to look into different ways of collecting tax effectively for low-value imports before proposing to lower the threshold at which it is collected.

“The volume of low value goods imports has grown by about 14 per cent per annum and is expected to double over the next five years. Customs does not currently collect GST and tariff duty if the total tax owed is under $60,” Ms Wagner says.

Customs Minister Nicky Wagner says Customs detector dogs that are proving their worth, having sniffed out almost $10 million of undeclared and concealed cash at the border in three years since their introduction.

“Customs dogs and their handlers play an important role in targeting and identifying criminal activities and networks. They help to protect New Zealand from money laundering and detecting the movements of large sums of cash that could be linked to illicit activities,” Ms Wagner says.

Customs Minister Nicky Wagner says six new eGates are now open for New Zealand, Australian, US, UK, and Canadian ePassport holders travelling to Queenstown.

“Four new next-generation eGates are available on arrival and two on departure, giving travellers the option of completing Customs checks using the one-step electronic process,” Ms Wagner says.

“The opening of the gates is timely, with fresh snow covering the ranges and Queenstown airport’s international capacity scheduled to increase by 14 per cent compared to last winter.”

Disability Issues Minister Nicky Wagner today departs to the United States to support New Zealand’s candidate for election to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, engage with international experts on the employment of disabled people, and discuss emerging international border security trends with Homeland Security.