41951 (2025). Lemauga Lydia Sosene to the Minister of Customs

41951 (2025). Lemauga Lydia Sosene to the Minister of Customs: How many international flights in total, if any, counting each leg of a journey as an individual flight, has each department or entity that the Minister is responsible for paid for in the period from November 27th 2023 to August 1st 2025; and what was the total cost broken down by month, destination, cabin class and the purpose of the flight?

Hon Casey Costello: I refer the Member to the 2023/24 Annual Review of New Zealand Customs Service (Customs), which provides Customs’ total spend on international travel (inclusive of flights, accommodation, and other associated expenses) for the 2023/24 financial year. 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 I also refer the Member to the attached appendix which provides Customs’ total spend on international flights for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 financial year to date, broken down by month. I am advised that Customs is unable to provide information on the destination, cabin class and the purpose of the international flight for the 2024/25 financial year without undertaking substantial collation and I do not consider this use of officials’ time to be in the public interest. Customs provides travel bookings support to the Border Executive Board secretariat team as the servicing department. The Secretariat have not taken any international flights.