Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Casey Costello: Customs Minister on the need for action to mitigate corruption in New Zealand

Transcript

Casey Costello: Customs Minister on the need for action to mitigate corruption in New Zealand · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The latest Organized Crime Group report. This is the advisor
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: group the government set up is out and it says
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: corruption is getting worse here and in the Pacific, mainly
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to do with organized crime importing drugs, that sort of thing,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: but also the fact that some of our trading partners
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: are more corrupt than us and there's a risk there
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: of the rock spreading. Casey Costello, Minister in charge of
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the group, with me this morning, Minister, Good.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Morning, Good morning Ryan.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I'm just having a look at some of the examples.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: There are some bad ones, you know, we've got border
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: agents being compromised and allowing meth to be brought in, etc.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: But there are only a couple spread over a few years.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Is this a.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Major problem or is this one we need more data about.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: No. I think this is a major problem because we're
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: talking about those agents being targeted by organized crime, so
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: as opposed to it being someone who's chosen a different path.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: This is about organized crime trying to find ways to
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: weaken our borders, weaken our controls and paint our supply chain.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: And this is why we can't sit on our laurels
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: and think, well, this is something happens in other countries.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: We need to step up in line with our Five
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Eyed partners and do more.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: When you say do more, do what exactly?
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: So this is about you know, if you in the report,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: it talks about the fact that we are the only
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Five Eyed partners that doesn't have a natural corruption strategy.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Our legislation isn't really fits a purpose when we talk
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: about corruption and our Crimes Act, it's quite a weak
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: phrasing of how we look at corruption in New Zealand
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: always about official capacity. What we need to look at
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: is bring our legislation up to play. And the biggest part,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: which is all of these reports are talking about, is
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: how our agencies connect up better to strengthen. As we
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: do with our border, we look at how we can
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: strengthen our border to make it stronger. This is about
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: our internal borders, making sure that we are connected, we're
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: working operatively, that all of our agents are sharing information.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: That all sounds good do you? This is all about
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: organized crime and it's about money, isn't it. I mean,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: if your if you work for customs, it's about money.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Do you know which department has the lowest pay of
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: all the departments?
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: No, I don't know, but it's.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Not Customs has the lowest average pay. I mean, do
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: you think so If it's not about money, what is
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: it about? Why else would you help you organize crime
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: group if you're.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: A customs official, Well, it is about money. It is
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: about as it says in the report, it's about familial
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: collection connections. It's about customery connections. We're talking about the
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: reason people drive do things is to help family members out.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: It's to protect a family member who's got to debt,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: those sort of things. It's not necessarily about driven from
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: making money also, and that's the part that we have
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: to be really serious, and it's not when we talk
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: about the organized crime component is about little players doing
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: little pieces of work that might not seem like a
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: major thing until it's.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Talking next about Minister. Appreciate your time this morning, Thanks
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: for coming on the show Casey Costello who has Customs
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: and associate police but also minister in charge of this
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: group looking into organized crime. For more from Early edition
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridge, Listen live to News Talks it'd be
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.