WELLINGTON
The Customhouse, 1 Hinemoa Street, Wellington
PO Box 2218, Wellington 6140
Phone: 04 901 4500 Fax: 04 901 4555 All general enquiries phone: 0800 428 786
Email
: [email address] Website
: www.customs.govt.nz
22 May 2023
Ref: OIA 23-071
Mr Shane Gibson
FYI website
By email:
[FYI request #22246 email]
Tēnā koe Mr Gibson
Request for information under the Official Information Act
Thank you for your email dated 24 March 2023, to New Zealand Customs Service (Customs),
requesting copies of all Memorandum of Understandings (MOU’s) signed in the last five years
related to the sharing of data with other agencies under the Official Information Act 1982 (the
Act).
Due to the broad nature of your request, Customs invited you to clarify the scope of your
request on 30 March 2023 and to discuss any useful background and contextual information
that Customs holds. On 1 May 2023, you clarified the scope of your request to:
“1) Joint Agency Implementation Reference for Advance Passenger Processing &
Advance Passenger Information between Immigration NZ and New Zealand Customs
Service
2) New Zealand Technical Operations Group Statement of Principles – New Zealand
Police, New Zealand Customs Service, New Zealand Security Intelligence Service,
New Zealand Defence Force and Government Security Communications Bureau
3) Information Sharing Agreement between the Ministry of Social Development and the
New Zealand Customs Service: Direct Access Agreement under Section 4314
Customs and Excise Act 2018
4) Operational protocol to support the Arrivals/Departures Approved Information
Sharing Agreement between Ministry of Social Development, Te Manatu Whakahiato
Ora and New Zealand Customs Service, Te Mana Arai o Aotearoa: to allow MSD to
verify entitlements to benefits, to help prevent MSD clients from incurring debt, and to
recover debts owed
5) Access Agreement for use of Pax Query between New Zealand Customs Service
and Inland Revenue: Sections 312 and 313 Customs and Excise Act 2018
6) Memorandum of Understanding between the New Zealand Customs Service and the
Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment in relation
to the New Zealand Traveller Declaration System (Tranche One)”
In response, please find an attachment titled
‘Appendix one – Requested Memorandum of
Understandings’ containing the following documents:
•
Joint Agency Implementation Reference between Immigration NZ and Customs
•
Operational protocol to support the Arrivals Departures Approved Information Sharing
Agreement
•
Access Agreement for use of Pax Query between New Zealand Customs Service and
Inland Revenue: Sections 312 and 313 Customs and Excise Act 2018
•
Memorandum of Understanding between Customs, the Ministry of Health and MBIE in
relation to NZ
Customs has withheld the contact details in
Access Agreement for use of Pax Query between
New Zealand Customs Service and Inland Revenue: Sections 312 and 313 Customs and
Excise Act 2018 under section 9(2)(a) to protect the privacy of natural persons. Customs has
considered the public interest arguments in favour of making this information available do not
outweigh the necessity to withhold this information.
I refer you to the link below, where the requested document for the
Information Sharing
Agreement between the Ministry of Social Development and the New Zealand Customs
Service: Direct Access Agreement under Section 4314 Customs and Excise Act 2018 is
publicly available:
https://www.privacy.org.nz/assets/New-order/Privacy-Act-2020/Information-sharing/Approved-
Information-Sharing-Agreements/Information-Sharing-Agreement-between-the-MSD-and-the-
NZ-Customs-Service.pdf
Your request for the
New Zealand Technical Operations Group Statement of Principles – New
Zealand Police, New Zealand Customs Service, New Zealand Security Intelligence Service,
New Zealand Defence Force and Government Security Communications Bureau is refused
under section 6(c) of the Act as the release of this document would be likely to prejudice the
maintenance of the law, including the prevention, investigation, and detection of offences.
You have the right, by way of complaint to the Office of the Ombudsman under section 28(3) of
the Act, to seek an investigation and review of this response. Information about how to make a
complaint is available online at:
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz, or you can phone 0800 802
602.
If you have any queries in relation to this response, please contact the Correspondence,
Reviews and Ministerial Servicing team at:
[email address].
Please note that Customs proactively releases responses to Official Information Act requests
on our website. As such, we may publish this response on our website after we have sent it to
you. Your name and contact details will be removed.
Nā māua noa, nā
Kathryn MacIver
Terry Brown
Group Manager
Group Manager
Policy and Strategy
Intelligence, Investigations and
Enforcement
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