Government Discards Border Review

Import News from the Importers Institute

29 August 2000 - Government Discards Border Review

Customs Minister Phillida Bunkle and Biosecurity Minister Marian Hobbs confirmed today that border control services will not be merged.

This follows an independent review undertaken last year, after the previous government investigated options for improving border control efficiency and effectiveness. The review team was headed by Sir Ron Carter.

After lengthy consultations with interested parties, the review recommended setting up a single quarantine and customs agency. However, while this was a consensus decision, it was in conflict with Labour's election promise to maintain a border agency dedicated to biosecurity.

The ministers' decision means importers will continue to have to deal with, and pay for, the waste and inefficiency of multiple border control agencies, which use incompatible systems that overlap each other.

The Ministers said "interested parties will soon be invited to contribute to the work being done" on getting Customs and MAF to work better with each other.

The Importers Institute secretariat will decline any such an invitation. We have no time for poor governance that prefers preservationist dogma to sound technical advice.

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