The chairperson of a ministerial
advisory group on organised crime says he won’t be satisfied
until he sees the government commit resources to tackling
the issue of organised crime.
The government launched
a plan earlier this month to combat transnational
organised crime, including setting up a new agency and
minister responsible, developing inter-agency information
sharing, and establishing a maritime campaign to disrupt
criminal networks in the Pacific.
“New Zealand and our
Pacific neighbours are being increasingly targeted by
organised criminal groups, who are using new technologies
and new ways of operating,” Associate Minister of Police
Casey Costello said then. “We need a different, stronger and
more cohesive response.”
Chairperson Steve Symon said
he was encouraged to see the government endorse the advisory
group’s plan, but wanted to see a commitment in Budget
2026.
“What would make me really satisfied, is if we
follow through on it, if what we see in the coming months,
is rolling up our sleeves and really mucking in to find out
exactly what we need to do to make this work.”
Symon
said the picture would become very bleak for New Zealand
without a real effort to disrupt criminal
networks.
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“It’s quite a frightening picture, because
organised crime is affecting all New Zealanders, whether we
necessarily recognise it or not.”
He said the effects
of organised crime were reaching into all corners of New
Zealand, whether through a
rise in methamphetamine use, fraud and cyber fraud, or
migrant exploitation.
Symon pointed to Australia’s
response to the
illegal tobacco problem – which he said was not quick
enough to disrupt what had become a $10 billion industry for
criminal groups.
He said the advisory group’s
recommendation to set up a new department and minister
responsible for the issue, was justified when there could be
up to 19 or 30 different agencies involved in addressing the
problem right now.
“What we’re saying is the New
Zealand public expect a co-ordinated response. It expects
these agencies to be working together, in fact the public is
right, because we will need that if we are going to
successfully stop organised crime.”
University of
Canterbury’s Pacific regional security hub head Jose
Sousa-Santos said the government and the public should be
worried about the influx of drugs at the border.
He
said despite larger seizures by customs, the price of
methamphetamine remained stable.
“Even though we are
seizing more methamphetamine over the past decades combined,
you can come to the conclusion there is much more
methamphetamine coming in.”
Sousa-Santos said drugs
were moving through the Pacific from South America, Canada
and South East Asia to New Zealand and Australia.
He
said Pacific criminal organised groups were starting to take
hold in the region, infiltrating and corrupting law
enforcement agencies.
He pointed to one part of the
government’s plan, which was to set up a joint customs,
GCSB, and Defence Force maritime campaign to disrupt
organised criminal groups networks across the
Pacific.
He said this could strengthen the region’s
national security.
“The Pacific Ocean is a large space
to operate in, and this will at least ensure that New
Zealand is able to be secure and work with our partners in
the Pacific, creating a situation where the regions and our
partnerships become force multipliers.
“It’s very
important that New Zealand has a lessons learnt policy from
our neighbours in the US and South-East Asia.
“The
tactics which are new to us – such as the narco subs or the
low-profile vessels – these are tactics which have been
utilised in America, and South-East Asia for
decades.”
Costello said previously that New Zealand
needed to improve its responses.
“The key thing I
think we need to recognise is that organised crime is a
business that will do anything it can to make a
profit.
“We need to be pivoting and responding in a
far more flexible and responsive way than we currently
are.”
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