20121 (2025). Francisco Hernandez to the Minister of Customs

20121 (2025). Francisco Hernandez to the Minister of Customs: How much, if anything, did the Minister's departments, agencies, crown entities and any other bodies that the Minister is responsible for, if any, spend on flights in 2025 to date, broken down into international and domestic flights?

Hon Casey Costello: I am advised that the New Zealand Customs Service (Customs) records and keeps information in relation to Customs spend on travel costs by financial year. Therefore, this response is provided by financial years to reflect Customs’ record keeping. I refer the Member to the attached appendix which provides Customs’ total spend on flights for the 2024/25 financial year to the end of April 2025 (July 2024 to April 2025), broken down by international and domestic travel. This appendix also provides Customs’ total spend on domestic flights for the previous five financial years. I am advised that Customs is unable to provide information on the total spend on international flights for the five previous financial years without undertaking substantial collation and I consider that this is not a good use of officials’ time. However, I refer the Member to the 2023/24 Annual Review of New Zealand Customs Service, which provides Customs’ total spend on international travel (inclusive of flights, accommodation, and other associated expenses) in the five previous financial years. This information can be found under question 97 via the following link: https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/54SCFADT_EVI_ccd4dc81-901b-4bcb-6fde-08dcebf31e9f_FADT1015/c70abce72267ec9a5d74818b530eb5273a25840e This response includes the staff of the Border Executive Board secretariat, as these staff are employees of Customs. Customs is the provider of travel bookings support to the Border Executive Board secretariat team as the servicing department.